His Savior
by Black Rose 2014
Summary: Fili/Kili (NOT RELATED), Thorin/Bilbo. They met as two orphans in a group home in New York City and promise to be brothers forever. Kili hates himself for screwing that up by falling in love with Fili. (Or how Kili first brings together his family and then is afraid he screwed everything up.) Slow burn.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I have no knowledge of the NYC foster care system or NY family law, so please overlook any inaccuracies.

Chapter One

Falling for Fili had been so easy that Kili hadn't even realized it had happened until years after they first met.

Though, to be fair, no one even thought about falling in love at the age of six.

He had been brought to the group home in the dead of night, shaking with fear as he clung to the hand of his social worker. He didn't remember his parents, not really. He had vague memories of shouting and crying and trying very hard to be quiet, but that was all. (Well, not all, but all he would let himself think about). All he knew then was that something very bad had happened to his mother, and that his father was going somewhere where he couldn't hurt anybody (couldn't hurt _Kili_ anymore).

And that left him utterly _alone_.

He wasn't the youngest at the group home, but he was definitely the smallest. That combined with his withdrawn nature left him as a ripe target for some of the older kids at the home. They would rip up his drawings, call him names, and shove him into the dirt whenever he tried to fight back.

"You'll never get placed with a proper foster family," Randy, one of his more frequent bullies, sneered one day after they had all said goodbye to Michael, who had just been placed himself. "Let alone _adopted_. Who would want a freakish runt like you? All you do is cause trouble."

He tried not to let it get to him, but he couldn't deny the _truth_ behind the statement. He never _meant_ to cause trouble. He was simply... curious. He had an endless abundance of questions. Why was the sky blue? What caused it to rain? What would chocolate milk and orange juice taste like mixed? (Awful, he had found out.) How long could he go without sleeping? (Not long, he had discovered, as he had fallen asleep not long after his bedtime that same night.) Why did Mr. West always tell them to never put a fork in the microwave?

That last one had gotten him in big trouble. He had been sent to bed without supper for a week, and it had taken nearly that long for him to be able to sit without it hurting. The light show had been pretty, but how was he supposed to know that it would break the microwave? If Mr. West had just told him that when he asked why in the first place, instead of snapping at him to just not do it, he never would have done it.

He dunked upstairs to his bunk as soon as Mr. West dismissed them to play. He had no desire to go outside with the other boys. While he didn't like being alone, it was better than being bullied all the time. He would miss Michael, he decided morosely. He had been one of the few boys in the home that had always been decent to him. On the upside, since Michael was gone, it meant that Kili had their room to himself until some other boy moved in.

He felt restless sitting in the house, but there was nothing for it. The other boys were no doubt in a foul mood for the reminder that they were still stuck in the home and not placed yet (especially Randy, who had been here far longer than Kili had). And they usually saw no problem with taking out their own frustration on Kili.

Since he didn't want to risk going outside, he took out an old notebook and grabbed the crayons he had managed to salvage over the past year. It'd be cool if he could draw what had happened inside the microwave when he had put the fork in it, though he'd have to be careful that Mr. West didn't see it, as that was likely to make the man mad.

He was just about to grab his blue crayon when the door to his room opened, causing his head to jerk up in fear that it was Randy seeking him out to torment him.

Instead, it was a blond boy he had never seen before being led in by Mr. West. So much for having his room to himself for a bit, he realized with a sigh. Maybe this one wouldn't be as bad as most of the others, though.

"Kili, what are you doing inside?" Mr. West asked with eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Nothing," he bit out before frowning down at his crayons. He couldn't do anything without Mr. West looking at him like he was up to no good. He couldn't tell the man that the other boys were mean to him. Even if the man did believe him, it would only make things worse in the long run.

"Oh, quit your pouting and go play outside while I get Fili settled in here," he ordered.

Though he was loathed to go outside and face the others, he quickly stashed his things and did as he was told, sparing one last glance at the blond boy, Fili, before he left.

He darted downstairs and into the backyard, with the thought of checking on a cocoon he had come across yesterday. He knew that a caterpillar was inside and would turn into a butterfly soon, but he wasn't sure how long it would take. He wanted desperately to know what was going _inside_ the cocoon, but knew that if he opened it, then the caterpillar (or was it a butterfly yet?) would die. He wasn't curious enough to kill the little thing before it was done. That would be cruel.

He found that cocoon again with little effort, right where he had left it on the bush on the corner of the house. The color looked a little different today. Maybe that means that the butterfly will come out soon, he thought with glee.

"Whacha lookin' out there, freak?"

He whirled around and stood protectively in front of the bush. "Nothing."

"Doesn't look like nothin' to me," Randy said with a nasty smirk before knocking Kili to the ground harshly. He stepped over the smaller boy to take a better look at the bush. "Oh, look, trying to grow yourself a friend? Even bugs wouldn't want to play with you."

The older boy smiled down at him cruelly before yanking the twig the cocoon was attached to from the bush and throwing it on the ground.

"No!" Kili cried out too late as Randy gleefully stomped on the small cocoon, grinding his foot down just because he could. His eyes filled with tears as he looked at the smear that was all that was left of what could have been. "Why did you do that?"

"Worthless freak," the older boy sneered. "Don't you know that nothing good ever lasts around you? How'd you think you ended up here? Pathetic freak with no parents and no friends."

Despite how much he didn't want Randy to see him cry, hot tears still poured down his cheeks without his consent. He stared down at the destroyed cocoon, hating the fact that the older boy was right.

"He does too have a friend," an unfamiliar voice said as a shadow fell over Kili. He looked up to see the blond boy from earlier insert himself between him and Randy. "He's got me."

"Only a freak would be friends with a freak," Randy scoffed, eyeing up the other boy. He couldn't have been older than Randy, who had just turned eight, but he was taller and with the healthy look of a child who had been properly looked after all his life.

"Better a freak than whatever it is you are," the other boy (Fili, Kili suddenly remembered) growled. "Now why don't you leave me and my friend alone."

"Whatever," Randy said with a roll of his eyes as he stalked away.

"Thanks," Kili sniffled as he pulled his legs up and tried to appear as small as possible in the shadow of both Fili and the bush, a habit he had adopted before he came to the home and never quite remembered why. (He _did_, really, but there wasn't any use thinking about it so why bother.) "You don't have to be my friend just cause you said that, though. Just you saying it should scare Randy off for a bit."

"Well, I don't know anyone else here, and since we could both use a friend, why not be each other's?" Fili said with a shrug, sliding down the wall to sit next to Kili. "I'm a good friend to have," he bragged with a smirk. It wasn't a mean smirk like Randy's always was. Fili's smirk made Kili think of barely withheld laughter, the good kind that came from figuring out who the doorknob worked, not the mocking kind he always got from other boys.

"And what makes you such a good friend?" he asked with an answering grin, ready to play whatever game Fili's sparkling blue eyes promised.

"Well I can climb trees, catch frogs, and spit further than all the other boys from school," he replied confidently.

"That supposed to impress me?" Kili asked, even though he was undoubtedly impressed. "Can you tie a knot?"

"Four different kinds," Fili answered proudly.

"Do you know how to swim?"

"Like a fish."

"How fast can you run?"

"Faster than anyone in the third grade, and some in the fourth."

"Bet you I can run faster," Kili challenged.

"Can not!" Fili protested.

"Can too! Just watch. Race you to that tree," he said, indicating the large oak on the far side of the yard.

"You're on! Ready, set, go!"

They tore off, Kili laughing the entire time as he managed to stay a half-pace in front of his new friend the entire way, slapping his hand against the bark of the tree a moment before Fili did. "Told ya I could beat you!" he crowed in triumph, turning to Fili and beaming.

It was only then that he thought he might have made a mistake. What if Fili didn't like being beat? What if he didn't want to be Kili's friend anymore?

Fili only grinned back at him though. "How'd you get so fast?"

"Pssh, that's nothing," he said smugly. "Gotta be able to outrun people before they hit you, ya know?"

Fili gave him a peculiar look before smiling down at him once more. "Well, since I'm not as fast as I thought I was, maybe that means you're a better friend than me. Guess that means we'll have to be best friends."

Kili looked at the other boy in wonder. "I've never even had a friend before, let alone a best friend." He bit his lip uncertainly and looked down. "What if I'm no good at it?"

Fili just shrugged and slung an arm around his shoulders. "How could you be bad at it?"

"I'll get you in trouble," Kili warned him. "I'm always in trouble with Mr. West. That's why no one ever wants to foster me. No one will want to foster you either with me as a best friend."

"I don't need any foster parent," Fili stated with finality. "'Specially one that don't like my best friend. Besides, my uncle is going to adopt me, soon as the social worker lady can find him."

"You're going to leave?" he asked morosely. He had just got a friend, a best friend even, and he was already going to leave him.

"I'm sure he'll take you too," Fili said confidently. "Then we'll be like brothers!"

Kili beamed at that. Brother trumped best friend hands down. "Okay!"

Of course, things hadn't really worked out as the two children had hoped. It took longer than expected for social services to track down Fili's uncle with only a first name to go on (though Thorin was an odd first name, Kili thought, so it shouldn't have been _that_ hard). New York was a big city, and they were only going on a few letters his mother had kept that the police had found after the accident. (It had been a car crash, Fili had told him.) In the end, it had been Kili who left the home first.

"I don't want to go," he said tearfully as he snuggled into Fili's side. He was nine now, and if Mr. West caught him sleeping in Fili's bed, he would have been angry because he was "too old for such nonsense."

"You have to," Fili told him as he wrapped his arms around the smaller boy. "Besides, you said Mr. Bilbo was nice, right?" Kili nodded sadly. "And remember what he told Stephanie?"

Kili did remember, though he wasn't strictly supposed to know about that conversation. Mr. Bilbo had been talking to Kili's social worker, Stephanie, privately after their second visit together, and had told her that he might want to properly adopt Kili after they got to know each other a little better. Fili and Kili had been listening by the door. At first, Kili had been thrilled at the idea because he really liked Mr. Bilbo.

He'd then been horrified because that would mean leaving Fili behind.

"You're going to have a proper family," Fili stated quietly.

"But you won't be there," he said mournfully. "And what if Mr. Bilbo decides to send me back? What if I'm too much trouble for him? What if I come back and you're already gone?"

Fili's social worker Elaine had told him last week that they thought they had found his uncle at last. Kili wasn't really sure why it had taken them so long, but now it looked like he and Fili would be well and truly separated for good.

"I'll find you, Kili," he promised seriously. Kili lifted his head to look into Fili's solemn blue eyes. "I said we would be brothers and I meant it. Brothers stay brothers even when they are separated."

Kili smiled up at him before resting his head against Fili's shoulders. "Brothers forever."

"Forever."

tbc...


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Kili was terrified living with Mr. Bilbo. (He had told him that he didn't have to call him "Mr.", that just "Bilbo" was fine, but Kili was scared it was a trap, like how his father used to tell him he could have a cookie and then hit him for having sweets before dinner.)

He wasn't terrified _of_ Mr. Bilbo. Mr. Bilbo was probably the nicest adult Kili had ever met. He cooked him chocolate chip pancakes and let him watch cartoons on Saturday mornings. He answered every question that Kili asked (though he tried very hard not to ask too many) and even seemed _happy_ when Kili was around.

No, it wasn't Mr. Bilbo Kili was scared of. It was himself.

He was going to mess it up. He _knew_ he was going to mess it up. He messed _everything_ up. If it hadn't been for him, his father would never had hurt his mother the way he did. _He_ was the reason that Randy killed the not-quite butterfly. It was probably a good thing that Fili wouldn't be around anymore. He'd only mess things up with him too.

He missed Fili _so much_. He knew the older boy had promised that they'd see each other again, but Kili was terrified he would never see his best friend again. Fili had been the first person to ever seem to think that Kili mattered. And if someone like Fili, who in Kili's eyes could do absolutely no wrong, thought that someone like _him_ mattered, well, that meant something.

But now he'd never see him again, he realized as tears welled in his dark eyes. Even when Mr. Bilbo got tired of him and sent him back to the home, Fili wouldn't be there. He'd be gone with his uncle and would forget all about Kili. Why shouldn't he? Kili was a nobody anyway.

"Kili?" the gentle voice of Mr. Bilbo called, setting a plate of scrambled eggs, sausage, and toast in front of him. "Are you alright, my boy?" he asked, placing a warm hand on Kili's shoulder.

Kili really wanted to lean into the touch, to wrap his arms around Mr. Bilbo and cry and tell him how scared he was that he'd never see Fili again and that Mr. Bilbo would get tired of him and he'd be all alone, but he knew that he couldn't do that. Mr. Bilbo might misunderstand and think he wasn't happy here. Then he'd send him away for sure.

Instead, he gave a half-shrug and picked at his food while mumbling, "I'm okay."

"Hmmm, you wouldn't be worried about your first day at a new school, would you?" Mr. Bilbo asked knowingly.

"Maybe a little," Kili answered, not exactly lying. He didn't care that much about school, though. He didn't expect to make friends there. He never had before. The teachers were bound to get annoyed with him, saying he was showing off by reading ahead (it wasn't _his_ fault everyone else went so slow) or getting annoyed when he asked too many questions (sometimes the book didn't explain with enough detail) or getting on to him for not paying attention.

School was worrying in general, but not really because it was new.

"Fourth grade. Important year," Bilbo nodded sagely. "You'll be learning some very important things. But I'm not worried about you, Kili, because you're smart. You'll catch on quickly."

"I will?" he asked, bewildered by the idea of Mr. Bilbo calling _him_ smart. No one had ever seemed to think that before. "How do you know?"

"We adults just know these things," he replied with a wink. "Just be sure to have a little bit of fun as well, okay? Relax a little and make some friends. You'll be fine."

"I've only ever had one friend," he admitted in a small voice. Why couldn't he keep the stupid tears from his eyes lately? "He was all I ever wanted, but I'll never see him again, will I?"

"Oh, my dear boy," Mr. Bilbo whispered before wrapping him in his arms. Kili stiffened at first. No one ever hugged him like this. Well, no one but Fili, but Fili's hugs were different. Everything about Fili was different. He relaxed into it though and clinched his fists around Mr. Bilbo's shirt. "You'll see him again. I'll make sure of it."

Kili blinked up at his foster father with watery eyes. "How?"

Mr. Bilbo smiled down at him with a soft look in his eyes. "Always so curious," he remarked with a soft chuckle. Kili flushed in shame and looked down, but Bilbo lifted his chin. "There's nothing wrong with a little bit of curiosity," he said firmly. "But to answer your question, I'll talk to your social worker and Mr. West at the group home, see if we can't set up a playdate with your friend. Fili, wasn't it?"

He nodded, wondering how Mr. Bilbo knew Fili's name but not wanting to ask anything else after being called out for being curious. "He might not be there anymore," he told him instead. "His uncle was supposed to come get him soon."

"Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Bilbo replied to Kili's complete confusion. What did bridges have to do with anything? He wanted to ask, but it was probably a stupid question anyway. "Now, why don't you finish off your breakfast and wash your face and I'll take you to school, okay?"

He nodded and shovelled his eggs and sausage into his mouth, took a couple of bites of his toast, and tore off to wash his face.

After that embarassing crying episode that probably irritated Mr. Bilbo, it was probably best that he complied with his orders quickly. Especially if he made good on his promise to let him see Fili, even if he had used the very childish term "playdate" for the whole thing.

School went better than he expected, though he didn't really make friends like Mr. Bilbo had said. He had _tried_, and he had gotten further than he ever had before (it probably helped that he was wearing the news clothes that Mr. Bilbo had bought him and no one really knew that he was foster kid). However, by the time lunchtime had come around and he had gotten comfortable enough to talk more freely, his mouth had pretty much ruined things for him. (_He_ had thought it was interesting that the Jell-O they were eating was made from horse hooves, but one girl had started crying and all the boys were looking at him like he had said the most awful thing in the world.)

That was okay though. They didn't seem to want to play with him (or even talk to him) but they didn't pick on him either. They had left him alone to dig for worms at recess, and when he had gotten bored with that, they hadn't bugged him when he decided to climb the jungle gym, even though a couple of them were already on it.

It was okay not to make friends as long as he didn't get any bullies. Besides, none of them could ever measure up to Fili anyway. (Okay, so maybe it would be _nice_ to have other friends too, but wanting them seemed almost like betraying Fili in some way.)

Mr. Bilbo was waiting for him outside afterwards, just like he said he would be.

"I won't be able to walk you to and from school every day," he had said that morning, looking regretful. "Will you be alright by yourself?"

Kili had barely resisted rolling his eyes at that and just nodded reassuringly. But honestly. It was only about four blocks to the school from Mr. Bilbo's apartment (which was located right above the small bakery he ran). And it was a _nice_ side of town. He had walked by himself to and from school for two years before he had met Fili. (Mr. West had meant for them all to walk together, but they usually ran off and left him behind.)

Still, it was... nice... seeing Mr. Bilbo waiting for him. It made him feel like, well, like someone _cared_ what happened to him. An adult someone, as opposed to someone like Fili. It wasn't a feeling Kili was used to. Adults could do things to help you. It was a type of support that Kili never had before.

Mr. Bilbo had looked pleased to see him too, if his smile was anything to go by. Maybe he hadn't gotten sick of Kili yet.

Kili grinned at the thought and ran excitedly to his foster father, nearly bursting at the seams to ask him about Fili.

"How was your day?" Mr. Bilbo asked as they began their walk back to the apartment.

"Fine," he said dismissively. "Did you hear about Fili?"

He knew right away that whatever Mr. Bilbo was about to say, it wouldn't be good. His face went pinched in a weird way as soon as the question was out of Kili's mouth, and Kili's heart fell.

"Kili," he said, stopping and kneeling down in front of him. "I called the group home, but Mr. West said that Fili had already left to live with his uncle. But I called your case worker, and she's going to try and get in touch with Fili's case worker. It may take a little bit of time though."

Kili bit his lip but nodded. It was better than nothing. At least Mr. Bilbo was _trying_.

"Don't worry, though," he said, standing up and smiling down at Kili. "I'm sure Fili is just as eager to see you, and his uncle is probably trying to track you down as much as I'm trying to track them down. Between both of us, we'll get this sorted out soon."

He mustered a small smile in reply, but in the back of his mind was worried that maybe Fili's uncle wouldn't want his nephew playing with a nobody like Kili.

He kept to himself the rest of the day, doing what little homework they had been given on their first day without complaint and staying as quiet as possible during dinner. There were a lot of observations and questions that Kili _wanted_ to voice (like telling Mr. Bilbo that he had climbed to the very top of the jungle gym or asking him why he named his bakery "Bag End"), but he had felt he had already bugged Mr. Bilbo enough for one day, what with asking him about Fili and all, so he kept his mouth shut.

The next two days, he did pretty much the same.

Unfortunately, Mr. Bilbo seemed to just get _more_ agitated as the days went by. Not _bad_ agitated like Mr. West (and his father) used to get, the kind that made Kili want to find a dark closet to hide in, but more of an uncomfortable agitated, making Kili feel guilty at the thought that he was the cause.

"Kili," Mr. Bilbo said suddenly during Thursday night's dinner, breaking the silence with a serious look on his face. "You know I want you to be happy here, right?"

He scrunched his nose up in confusion, but nodded anyway.

"I can't do that unless you tell me why you're unhappy," he continued gently. "Is it something I'm doing? Do you not like it here?"

His eyes widened and he shook his head vehemently. "I _really_ like being here, Mr. Bilbo," he stressed. "I've never liked living nowhere more."

His foster father sighed. "Are you just missing your friend? I promise you I will find him for you, but is there anything I can do to make you happier in the meantime? Anything to make you more comfortable?"

"You've already done more for me than anyone ever has," Kili replied earnestly.

"Well, we're family now, Kili. That means taking care of each other."

He frowned at that. "What do I have to do to take care of you?"

"Be happy. Be yourself. That's all I need," Mr. Bilbo smiled at him with a twinkle in his eye. "I can see the effort it takes for you to not talk, sometimes, but you don't need to. I like listening to you talk and I like answering your questions."

"But what if I bug you too much?" Kili blurted out his greatest fear. "I don't want to be sent back."

"Oh, Kili," Bilbo said, standing and coming around the table to pull him into a tight embrace. He pulled back slightly and looked him in the eye. "I'm never sending you back. You're my little boy now, and I don't intend to ever give you up."

"Promise?" he asked tearily.

"I promise," Mr. Bilbo whispered, pulling him into another hug and dropping a kiss on the top of his head. "I promise."

tbc...

Reviews are love!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

It was hard, at first, to take Mr. Bilbo at his word. It wasn't until a Wednesday a couple of weeks later that Kili began to realize that Mr. Bilbo hadn't been lying.

Kili walked into the bakery after school, intending to let his foster father know that he had made it home before going back out and up to the apartment.

"Kili!" Mr. Dori greeted him from behind the counter with a large smile on his face.

"Hi, Mr. Dori!" Kili replied with a grin of his own. He liked Mr. Dori. He was much older than Mr. Bilbo, with almost white hair and he always smelled like cupcakes. Sometimes, he would slip Kili a cookie with a wink and a finger to his lips. Kili didn't know why, though, because Mr. Bilbo had seen him do it a time or two, he knew, and had never said anything.

"Bilbo's in the back frosting a cake. I can tell him you went on up, if you'd like, but how about this instead," he said with a twinkle in his eye. "Why don't you sit down here and do your homework and I'll get you a cupcake when you're done? My grandson is going to be spending his afternoons here with me from now on, and I think the two of you would get along nicely."

Kili frowned as he thought over the suggestion. On one hand, a cupcake after finishing his homework sounded really good. Plus, Mr. Bilbo would be down here. He liked being near Mr. Bilbo. On the other hand, though, he didn't usually get along with other kids very well. They usually thought he was odd.

But Mr. Dori was looking at him so hopefully that Kili couldn't really say no. Besides, Mr. Dori was nice, so maybe his grandson was too.

"Okay," he said with a shrug, sitting down at a table by the wall near the counter. He pulled out his homework folder and decided to start with math. It was the easiest. They had just started long division, and Kili liked how it was like multiplying backwards.

Mr. Bilbo came out of the back with a pink box in his hands and smiled when he saw Kili sitting there. "Mrs. Taylor is going to come in for this around four," he told Dori, nodding towards the cake box. He then walked over to lean against the display case close to Kili. "Good day at school?"

He nodded. "Mr. Dori said he'd give me a cupcake after I finished my homework," he informed, hoping that was okay with his foster father.

"Well you best get to it," he said with a smirk and a raised eyebrow, causing Kili to grin and nod.

The bell on the bakery door rang out. "Ori!" Mr. Dori greeted enthusiastically, coming out from behind the counter to huge the kid who just walked in.

Kili turned slightly in his seat to get a better look at him. He was shorter than him, he noted happily, so even if he turned out mean, he wouldn't be able to push Kili around too much. But from the looks of him, Ori wasn't the mean type. He smiled happily enough when Dori swooped him up for a hug, but smiled sheepishly when Mr. Bilbo greeted him from behind the counter, dunking his head and letting his auburn hair fall over his eyes.

Mr. Dori led the other boy to the table where Kili sat. "Ori, this is Mr. Bilbo's son, Kili." Kili jolted at the man calling him Mr. Bilbo's _son_, but didn't want to protest. He liked the sound of it a little too much. "Kili, this is my grandson, Ori."

"Hi," Ori said shyly, giving him a tiny smile.

"Hi," Kili responded with a grin, figuring he may as well try to be friends with Ori. "Mr. Dori says he'll give us cupcakes if we finish our homework!" he told him excitedly.

Ori whipped his head up to look at his grandfather with hope gleaming in his eyes. Mr. Dori just laughed. "Yes, I did. I'll leave you two to it. You boys let me know if you need any help."

Kili heard Ori pull out his own homework as he turned back to his math worksheet. He only had a few problems left, which were dealt with easily enough. Teacher always said to go back and check your work, but Kili found that terribly boring. He'd already done it, why go back and look over it again? Instead, he took out his English worksheet and made a face. Contractions. He hated contractions.

To put off starting his next (and last) bit of homework, he looked up at Ori, who was biting his lips and furrowing his brow in concentration.

"What are you working on?" he asked curiously.

"Math," Ori replied morosely. Kili perked up. Math was one of his favorites. "We're doing fractions. I don't get fractions."

"I could help you!" he volunteered eagerly. "I love fractions!"

"Really?" he asked earnestly before frowning. "Don't you have to do that?" he said, pointing towards the English worksheet.

"I'm not so good with contractions," Kili admitted. "But I am good with fractions! I'd rather help you."

"I'm good at contractions!" Ori beamed at him. "Maybe we can help each other?"

Kili grinned. "Deal!"

Whenever someone in his class had ever asked for his help with schoolwork before, they had basically just wanted Kili to give them the answers. Kili didn't really like doing that, but figuring out fractions for Ori was more appealing than figuring out contractions on his own. However, it was quickly apparent that Ori would not be satisfied with just answers, which meant Kili got to _explain_. And Kili _loved_ explaining things.

"You can't just add them like they are," he said as they began with the first problem. "The bottom numbers are different, see? You gotta make the bottom numbers the same first."

"How?"

"By timesing them to get the least common denominator," he said. Ori looked at him blankly. "Well, the denominator is the bottom number right?" Ori nodded. "The least common denominator is the smallest number that both numbers can go into." Ori nodded again in understanding. "Like if it were two and three, then the least common denominator would be six. Sometimes it's easier to just times the two denominators by each other."

Ori's eyes lit up. "So for this one, since the denominators are four and five, the least common denominator would be twenty!"

"That's right!" Kili crowed in triumph.

They went through each problem together, going faster with each subsequent problem as Ori got the hang of it. They then turned to Kili's English worksheet.

"So the apostrophe goes where letters are missing after you smoosh the words together?" Kili asked for clarification. Ori nodded eagerly. "But what about won't? How does that make sense? The missing letters are I. L. L, but the apostrophe is between the N and the T! And why is the O moved to after the W?"

Ori shrugged. "I don't know. That's just the way it works."

Kili scowled down at the worksheet. "This is why I hate English. It doesn't make sense!"

"Sometimes it doesn't," he replied sympathetically. "Some things you just got to remember."

"I'm not good with remembering," he mumbled with a frown, circling his final answer on the sheet.

"You're really good with math though," Ori comforted. "And I think you're better at remembering than you think. You knew most of the answers already."

"Hmm, maybe. Do you have any more homework?"

"Nope," Ori said with a grin. "Math was all I had."

"Me either. You know what that means?" Kili said with a sly grin before turning towards where Mr. Dori was wiping the counter. "Mr. Dori! We're finished!"

"Are you now?" he asked with a smile on his face. "Well, I guess it's time for cupcakes then."

The two kids exchanged grins as Mr. Dori put two chocolate cupcakes in front of them with swirly green frosting on top. "Enjoy, boys."

"Thanks, Mr. Dori!"

"Thanks, Grandpa!"

Kili wasted no time in unwrapping the cupcake and taking a big bite, surprised at the chocolate goo that flooded into his mouth. He chewed thoughtfully as he examined the remainder of the cupcake.

"How do the get the goo inside?" he asked Ori, who just shrugged. "And how do the spread the icing to be so swirly? And how do they make it green?"

"Would you like to see how?" Mr. Bilbo's voice asked. Kili turned and looked to where Mr. Bilbo was smiling from the door to the kitchen. He cocked his head towards the back. "Come on, I was just about to frost a batch. Why don't you two help?"

Kili grinned before walking as quickly as he could to the kitchen (because Mr. Bilbo had already told him not to run in doors). Ori followed him at a more sedate pace after looking at his grandfather for permission. Kili was jumping on the balls of his feet and nearly vibrating with excitement as he stood next to the table that held two trays of unfrosted cupcakes.

"Now," Mr. Bilbo said, smiling at the two boys. "What color should we make these cupcakes?"

"Blue!" Kili cried immediately. It was his favorite color.

"Blue it is," his foster father said. He grabbed a large bowl that already had white, fluffy icing in it. "Since I've already made the frosting, we're just going to add some food color to it." He grabbed a small white tube with blue writing on it. He squeezed a few drops into the bowl. He then began to stir the color in with something that sorta looked like a spoon, but wasn't.

"What's that?" he asked, pointing at the unknown utensil.

"This is a spatula," Mr. Bilbo answered.

"It doesn't look like the spatula Daddy flips pancakes with," Ori pointed out with a frown.

"That's because this," he said, holding up the utensil for the boys to get a better look at it, "is a baker's spatula. We use it to frost cakes."

"Are you going to use it to spread the icing on the cake?" Kili asked, wondering how the spatula could make the swirls of frosting on the cupcakes they'd had before.

"No, we will pipe the frosting on," Mr. Bilbo answered.

Kili immediately pictured frosting coming out of the bendy pipes from under the bathroom sink. "Pipe?"

His face must have shown his confusion because Mr. Bilbo chuckled. "I'll show you."

He and Ori watched as Mr. Bilbo took a large white bag thing out and scooped some of the now blue icing into it and twisted the bag close. He then held the bottom of the bag, which had a pointed metal piece on the end, over a cupcake and _squeezed_, making frosting come out. Mr. Bilbo squeezed slowly and moved the tip of the bag in a circular motion, making a perfectly frosted cupcake.

"Wow," Ori breathed.

"Can I try? Pleeeease?" Kili begged.

Mr. Bilbo laughed again. "Of course!"

He handed the bag over to Kili's eager hands and showed him how to hold it. Kili moved the tip of the bag over the next cupcake and squeezed like Mr. Bilbo had. He squeezed too hard, though, and a glob of frosting came out, covering the entire cupcake and spilling over the sides.

"Oh no!" he cried in distress, knowing Mr. Bilbo was about to be mad. He instinctively shrank into himself, preparing himself for a blow.

"Well, that's okay," Mr. Bilbo said, laying his hands gently over Kili's and ignoring how he flinched away from him. "That can happen, especially with a first try. Let's try another, hm?"

With Mr. Bilbo's help, he managed to very carefully swirl the frosting on the next cupcake correctly, though it didn't look as nice as Mr. Bilbo's.

"Very good!" Mr. Bilbo praised as Kili beamed up at him.

"Can I try too?" Ori asked softly.

Kili quickly surrendered the frosting bag to the other boy, smiling as his foster father helped his new friend with frosting a cupcake. Mr. Bilbo looked up at him and smiled back at him, looking so _happy_ to be sharing things with Kili.

Maybe he had been telling the truth when he said he liked Kili being around before.

Things became better after that day. Kili became less reserved around Mr. Bilbo, who seemed happier and happier the longer he was there. He liked seeing Mr. Bilbo happy.

And he even had a friend! Granted, Ori was nowhere as good as Fili was, but that was okay. Fili was his best friend, but people had friends that _weren't_ best friends, right? But maybe Ori was his best friend. Fili had said that they were brothers. That meant that Kili wasn't replacing Fili because you couldn't replace brothers.

So he didn't feel guilty playing with Ori when he came to the bakery after school every day (apparently Ori's fathers (he had TWO of them, how lucky was that?) didn't like him being at home alone while they worked). Sometimes, they would just sit in the bakery and either do homework or draw or play games, but Mr. Bilbo also let them go up to the apartment by themselves sometimes and play with Kili's toys up there or watch TV.

They were both drawing in the bakery when it happened.

Kili was concentrating very hard on drawing the spiderweb that he had seen on the stairs outside. The bell over the door broke his concentration and he looked up to see the biggest man he had ever seen. He wasn't big like Ori's Uncle Bombur was. No, this man was tall and broad like Batman was. He looked a little scary, if Kili was honest, like he imagined Batman would probably be if he met him in real life. Not scary in a bad way, though, if that made any sense.

What struck Kili the most was his _hair_. It was long, but it didn't make the man look girly, even if it were pulled into a high ponytail. Then again, Kili supposed it was hard to look girly with a beard. Girls didn't have beards, after all.

The man was all but forgotten, though, as Kili caught sight of the small figure standing behind him.

"Fili!" he yelled, up and running towards the other boy before anyone could react. If it hadn't been for the man next to Fili, he'd probably would have knocked them both to the ground as he ran into Fili and threw his arms around him.

"You're here, you're here, you're here," he murmured over and over, hanging on tightly to the blond boy he had begun to despair of ever seeing again.

"I'm here," Fili whispered back. "Told you I'd find you."

Kili pulled back a bit and grinned up at him, not caring that his eyes were wet. "What took you so long?" he demanded with a pout.

Fili laughed at him and tugged him back into a hug. "Sorry. New York was bigger than I thought."

Kili clung tighter to Fili. "Just don't leave again, okay?" he begged.

"Promise. Brothers don't leave," Fili assured.

"Good."

tbc...


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Kili didn't want to let Fili go after he had finally got him back. To be fair, though, Fili didn't seem ready to let Kili go either. Mr. Bilbo and Fili's Uncle Thorin, who was the big, scary-looking man that Fili had come in with, exchanged a bemused before Mr. Bilbo had asked Kili to bring Fili up to the apartment while he and Fili's uncle talked.

Kili grinned before dragging Fili outside and then up to their apartment, making sure to keep a firm grasp on his hand the entire way.

He didn't care much for any of his toys or anything in his room now that he had Fili back, so once they had reached his room, he had just turned to look at his friend and smile in happiness, clinging to Fili's hand like he was afraid he'd disappear.

Fili smiled back at him. "So Mr. Bilbo seems nice." It sounded like a statement, but Kili could read the question in Fili's eyes, the one he always got whenever he had left Kili alone with other people. The one that asked, _Are you okay? _

Kili nodded. "I like him a lot, but I _really_ missed you."

"He's taking good care of you though?" The question wasn't even disguised this time.

He rolled his eyes and pulled Fili over to his bed, dragging him down and curling up with him like they used to do in their room at the home. "You always worry too much," he accused, tucking his head under Fili's chin.

Fili chuckled and wrapped his arms around him. "Well, you're my little brother. I'm supposed to look after you."

A warm feeling spread through Kili at that. Not only did he have an almost-father, but he got his brother back to. How lucky could he get?

He frowned, though, as he remembered how scary Fili's uncle looked. "What about you?" he asked, almost afraid of the answer. "How's your uncle?"

"Uncle Thorin is great!" Fili gushed. "I mean, he works a lot, but that's okay because I usually stay with Uncle Balin then and he's really nice too. And he's adopting me, just like I told you he would. Only, he said it would take a little while for everything to be final."

"What does he do? Who's Uncle Balin? And why did he not find you sooner?" Kili was especially interested in this last question. He took it as a personal affront that Fili's uncle hadn't found him sooner. Why would anyone take so long to look for someone as great as Fili?

"He's a detective," Fili said proudly. "And Uncle Balin lives in the apartment across the hall from us, but he's not really my uncle. His brother is Uncle Thorin's partner at work. And he didn't know about me."

Kili scrunched up his face and looked up at Fili in confusion. "Didn't know about you? How could he not know about you?"

Fili shrugged. "He and my grandfather had a fight about something, and my grandfather disowned him. Told my mom that she wasn't allowed to talk to him. She tried anyway, but Uncle Thorin told her to not make trouble for herself. She never got a chance to tell him about me."

"Disowned?"

"It means he told Uncle Thorin that he wasn't his son anymore," he explained.

Kili looked at him in horror. "People _do_ that?" What if Mr. Bilbo did that with _him_? "What'd they fight about that was so bad?" he asked in a low voice.

"Uncle Thorin being gay," he answered matter-of-factly.

"Gay? What's that?"

"It means that Uncle Thorin likes to kiss boys instead of girls," Fili told him.

"Oh. Like Ori's dads," he said thoughtfully. "And people don't like that?"

"Some people don't," he replied with a shrug. "My grandfather sure didn't. Who's Ori?"

"He's my friend," Kili said proudly. "His grandpa works at the bakery with Mr. Bilbo. Mr. Bilbo is friends with his dads."

"So Mr. Bilbo definitely won't have a problem with Uncle Thorin being gay," Fili stated with satisfaction. That was good, Kili decided. Not just because he'd hate for Mr. Bilbo to not like Fili's uncle, but also that meant that Mr. Bilbo would still like him if _he_ decided he wanted to kiss boys instead of girls (not that he wanted to kiss _anybody_ because _ew_, even if a small part of him wondered _why _people seemed to like it so much). "And you madea new friend?"

"I still like you best!" Kili was quick to assure, sitting up to look at Fili properly, begging him with his eyes to believe him. "I promise I wasn't trying to replace you!"

Fili just rolled his eyes and pulled Kili back down, letting out a small "oof" as Kili landed half on top of him. "I'm not worried that, Kee," he said in exasperation. "I'm _happy_ you have other friends."

"Friend," he corrected.

"What?"

"I only have the one other friend," Kili confessed. "Nobody at school really wants to be my friend. They think I'm annoying. But they don't bully me!"

"They're stupid then," Fili grumbled.

"I don't need anyone else," he responded brightly. "I got you as a brother, I got Ori as a best friend, and I got Mr. Bilbo as something like a dad."

"Something like a dad? Does that mean he's adopting you?"

"He and Stephanie sat down with me when she came to visit here for the first time after I moved in," he said with a shrug. "They told me they'd start the paperwork if I was okay with it. But they said what your uncle said. That it'd take time to go through."

"So Mr. Bilbo is basically your dad, then? Not just 'something like' it," Fili stated like it was obvious.

"People assume he is," he all but whispered. "Mr. Dori and my teachers always call him my father and call me his son. I don't tell them any different. I..." he trailed off, picking absently at a thread on the blanket beneath them. Saying he wanted it to be true sounded pathetic.

"You could probably call him 'Dad,' you know?" Fili suggested casually.

Kili bit his lip. "He didn't tell me I could, though," he said uncertainly.

"He probably doesn't want to just ask you to," the older boy explained. "Doesn't want you to feel like he's trying to replace your real dad. That's what Uncle Thorin told me when he told me he was adopting me. Told me I could call him whatever I wanted because he knew I already had a dad and he didn't want to replace him."

"Mr. Bilbo is _nothing_ like my real dad," Kili said with heat, twisting around to glare at Fili for even suggesting that.

"I know," he said gently. "Your real dad sucked."

Kili frowned. "I never told you that."

"You never had to," Fili said with a sad smile. Kili looked down, unable to meet Fili's eyes. He didn't like people knowing about his parents. The ones who did either pitied him (mostly adults) or thought he deserved it (mostly other boys at the home). "Hey," he said, dunking his head so Kili had to look at him. "He doesn't matter anymore. He's never going to hurt you again. Besides, you got a new dad. A much _better_ dad."

Kili thought that over before smiling shyly. "You really think Mr. Bilbo won't mind if I call him Dad?"

"Never hurts to ask, right?" Fili grinned, laying back down on the bed and pulling Kili down with him. "Now, tell me everything I missed."

That was all the go-ahead Kili needed to tell Fili everything that had happened to him since leaving the home. He told him how Mr. Dori would always give him and Ori a treat for finishing their homework. He told him how his teacher had complimented him last week for being able to spell "responsibility." He told him how he had accidentally made Louisa, a girl in his class, cry after she had asked him if he would be her boyfriend and he had said no.

Fili had roared with laughter at that last one.

"I didn't even know her _name_ until she passed me the note," Kili grumbled, pouting as Fili laughed some more.

"How'd you not know her name if she's in your class?" Fili asked.

"Well, she had never talked to me before," he pointed out petulantly. "Why should I have learned her name?"

"Fair enough," he chuckled. "But—"

Whatever Fili was about to say was interrupted by a knock on the door. Mr Bilbo poked his head in and blinked at them. Probably was surprised at them lying on the bed and just talking instead of playing or anything. He quickly shook himself out of his surprise though. "Sorry, boys, but your uncle says you need to be going, Fili."

"No!" Kili cried, throwing his arms around Fili.

"I'll come back as soon as I can," Fili promised. "And I can call you and talk to you tomorrow!"

"I've already given your Uncle Thorin our phone number," Mr. Bilbo assured as Kili turned hopeful eyes to him. "Now come on. Time to go, Fili."

Kili walked his friend to the living room where his uncle was waiting, clinging to his hand the entire way. He pulled him into a desperate hug before he left, holding on as tight as he could.

"I'll be back," Fili whispered. Kili just nodded.

Fili's uncle gave him a small smile before nodding to Mr. Bilbo. "We'll be in touch," he said, his voice deeper than any Kili had ever heard. He liked it, he decided.

Mr. Bilbo turned to him and smiled once they had left. "Dinner?"

Kili nodded, settling on the couch to watch television while Mr. Bilbo began cooking in the kitchen. He couldn't really concentrate on what was happening on the screen though. He couldn't get Fili's words out of his head.

Finally, he got up and walked to the door of the kitchen. Mr. Bilbo was in there, stirring something vigorously in a frying pan and talking to himself.

"—will not find that man attractive, Bilbo Baggins. You will not make things awkward with him," he was mumbling to himself. "I don't care how blue his eyes are. You will restrain yourself for—"

"Mr. Bilbo?" he interrupted, causing the man to start and nearly upend the pan.

"Oh," he cried in alarm as the frying pan teetered but managed to stabalize it before turning to Kili with a smile. "Did you need something, Kili?"

"I was just wondering," he said in a small voice, looking down at his shoes. "Well, you're trying to adopt me right?"

"Yes," Mr. Bilbo answered slowly, turning a knob on the stove and moving closer to Kili before kneeling in front of him. "But only if you want me to."

Kili nodded, looking up hopefully. "Well, I was just wondering if I could maybe... call you Dad?"

Bilbo swallowed thickly. "Oh, Kili," he said in an oddly choked voice. "I'd like that very much. But only if you want to."

"I do!" he replied earnestly. "I mean, I really want you to be my dad. If that's okay?"

"Kili," he whispered before wrapping him tightly in his arms. "Of course it's okay."

Kili felt something wet hit his ear and he pulled back with a frown. "Why are you crying, Dad?"

His father chuckled through his tears. "Kili. Son," he said with a smile. "I'm just so happy."

Kili grinned before hugging his father again, convinced this was probably the best day ever. It only got better when whatever Bilbo had been cooking ended up burning and they ordered pizza instead.

Life was pretty much perfect after that, Kili decided. Fili, as it turned out, lived in Jackson Heights, which wasn't too far from Bilbo's bakery in Sunnyside. It had apparently taken some pleading by Fili, and some assurances from Bilbo that it was no imposition, but Thorin had given his permission for Fili to visit Kili after school, as long as he got all his homework done and was home in time for dinner (something Kili was in awe over, because Thorin let Fili ride take the bus _by himself_, making Fili basically the coolest person ever).

Needless to say, Fili was over as much as possible after that.

They always did their homework as fast as possible (Kili usually finished first and it was always very hard to keep quiet and still waiting for Fili to finish). Mr. Dori still gave sweets for finishing. Ori had looked a little down the first time Fili came straight from school, though, which make Kili feel kinda bad for almost forgetting his friend so he invited him along to play with Fili and him. He still felt kinda bad because he and Fili sometimes got a little too caught up in talking to each other and he didn't want Ori to feel left out, but the little redhead didn't seem to mind too much.

He had asked him about it one day while they were waiting for Fili to show up at the bakery.

"You never leave me behind," Ori had said with a shrug. "I know you both are my friends. You're just something more with each other."

Kili accepted that with a shrug and tried not to feel bad about things anymore. He also made sure to never leave Ori behind though.

It was a Tuesday night when he was sitting on the couch after dinner (reading a book about the Egyptians pyramids and wondering whether or not he wanted to become an archeaologist) when the phone rang. He quickly abandoned the book and scrambled to pick it up.

"Hello?" he said in the receiver, hoping it was Fili. He knew he had just seen the other boy earlier that day, but that didn't mean he didn't want to talk to him again.

"Hello, Kili, is your father there?" Thorin's deep voice answered. Kili was only slightly disappointed. Mostly, he was curious over why Fili's uncle was calling his dad.

"Yeah, hold on," he said before covering the phone receiver. "Dad?" he called, the novelty of using that word still making something warm fill his chest. "Mr. Thorin wants to talk to you on the phone!"

A loud crash came from the kitchen where Bilbo was cleaning and he frowned. His dad came out looking a little frazzled, but smiled at Kili as he took the phone from him.

"Hello?" Kili kept a careful eye on his dad as he listened to whatever Fili's uncle was saying, wondering what was making him act so weird. "It's been no trouble," Bilbo responded to whatever Thorin had said. Probably something about keeping an eye on Fili the past few weeks. "I'm pretty sure Kili would have thrown a fit if it were any other way."

Kili scowled at that. He would not have done something so childish as having a temper tandrum. He really didn't know what he would have done, though. He wouldn't have wanted to make Bilbo mad at him, but he would've wanted to spend time with Fili. Thankfully, he didn't have to choose.

"If you're sure it wouldn't be an imposition," Bilbo was saying into the phone now. He smiled as Thorin obviously assured him it wasn't. "Well, we'll be there then." There was another pause before his dad said, "Goodbye," and hung up the phone.

"What'd he say?" Kili asked immediately.

"He invited us to dinner at their apartment this Friday night," his dad answered, looking a bit preoccupied at something else.

Kili tilted his head and looked up at him. "Dad, you like Mr. Thorin, right?"

Bilbo's eyes widened. "Of course, I do! Whatever made you think I didn't?"

"Well," he said with a furrowed brow. "You just kinda look funny whenever you talk to him."

"I like him just fine," he sighed. "I'm just silly sometimes. You'll understand when you're older."

He scowled. "I hate it when grown ups say that."

His dad laughed at that. "I remember hating it to, but some things just can't be explained. You just have to experience them."

"If you say so," he grumbled before going back to the couch and his book. Maybe he'd ask Fili what he thought Bilbo meant and if his uncle ever acted weird when talking to Bilbo. If they both acted weird, maybe they just needed a little help to work whatever the problem was out.

Satisfied with that thought, he went back to reading about pyramids.

Tbc...

This story is getting out of hand but I love it. I hope I'm not disappointing anyone with the slow build! Please let me know what you think by reviewing!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Kili was vibrating with excitement by the time he and Bilbo got to Fili's apartment. He rolled his eyes as his dad straightened his jacket before knocking. He didn't understand why his dad was so focused on what his clothes looked like. He also didn't understand what was wrong with the first two shirts Bilbo had put on before settling on the one he was wearing. They all looked the same to Kili.

Fili opened the door almost before Kili's father got done knocking. The blond grinned as he grabbed Kili's hand and dragged him inside, leading Bilbo to follow at a more sedate pace.

"Uncle Thorin!" he called in delight as he pulled him into the small dining area where his uncle was putting a dish of lasagna on the table. "They're here!"

"Yes, I can see that," Thorin said drily, lips quirking up in a smile as he shared a look with Bilbo. Kili watched with interst as his dad smiled back with a slightly pink tinge on his cheeks. He looked to Fili in askance but the other boy just looked smug. Kili felt like he was missing something.

"I brought dessert," Bilbo said, holding up the bakery box he had brought.

Fili cheered, causing his uncle to chuckle. "I'll put this in the kitchen," Thorin said, taking the box before nodding towards the table. "Please, help yourself."

Kili caught Fili's eye and the two boys wasted no time in scrambling into chairs next to each other. Fili carefully put two heaping helps of lasagna on both their plates while Kili grabbed bread for them both. Neither of them bothered even looking at the salad that was also on the table. Bilbo just shook his head at them and poured water in their glasses from the pitcher on the table.

"This is really good, Mr. Thorin," Kili complimented around a mouth full of lasagna.

"Kili, don't talk with your mouth full," his dad scolded while Thorin just smiled.

"Thank you, Kili," he replied, taking the seat left next to Bilbo.

There was a stretch of awkward silence as they ate, broken up by Thorin and Bilbo's stilted attempts at small talk. Normally, Kili had no problem filling the silence with chatter when he was with just Fili, but Thorin was a new entity to him. He had heard a lot about him from Fili, but he hadn't really spoken to the intimidating man before.

It was Fili who finally got the conversation going.

"Uncle Thorin arrested a some bank robbers today!" he informed them with pride.

Kili's head whipped up. "Really?" he asked in awe. "How many were there? Did they have guns? Did _you_ have a gun? How much money did they steal? How'd you catch them?"

Thorin chuckled as Kili ran out of questions to ask. "There were three of them," he answered dutifully, sharing an amused look with Bilbo. "And no, they did not have guns so I didn't have a reason to draw mine either, luckily. They were very smart. They managed to steal over three million dollars from nine banks over two months."

"That's a lot of money," Kili said, eyes big. "How'd they do that?"

"They did some very clever tricks with computers," Thorin replied, taking a bite of lasagna.

"If they were so smart, how'd you catch them?"

"Uncle Thorin is smarter!" Fili chimed in, knocking his elbow against Kili's with a grin. "They couldn't hide from him!"

The detective smiled warmly at his nephew. "In all honesty, it was more our computer forensics people than it was me," he stated. "All I did was put all the pieces together in the end."

"How?" Kili pressed, lasagna half hanging out of his mouth.

"Kili, eating is less messy if you keep the food in your mouth," Bilbo commented lightly but with a stern look. Kili dutifully stuff the lasagna all the way in his mouth and kept his lips shut as he chewed.

Thorin shrugged in answer to his question. "Using investigative tools," he said. "Asking questions, checking facts, looking for evidence, that kind of thing. Collecting all the information we can and then following it to the perpetrators."

"Wow." That was it, he decided. Thorin was his new hero. "That's so cool. I want to be a detective when I grow up!" Kili wasn't sure, but he thought he saw Thorin's cheeks redden slightly.

"I'm sure you can be whatever you want to be, Kili," his father said, smiling indulgently.

Fili, however, frowned next to him. "You shouldn't be a detective."

Kili gave him a hurt look. "You don't think I could do it?"

"Of course you could!" he insisted. "You'd be great at anything! But there are safer things to do. Being a cop is dangerous, right, Uncle?"

Kili rolled his eyes as the adults shared an amused look. Fili always tried to stop him from doing things he thought were "dangerous." Just last week, he had talked Kili out of trying to use a bedsheet as a parachute and jumping out of his bedroom window. In hindsight, though, Kili could admit that that probably hadn't een his best idea.

"There are risks associated with the job," Thorin admitted. "But it's worth it. Should I be offended, though, that you only think of the danger when it's Kili's hypothetical career? Not worried about your poor, old uncle?"

Fili scoffed at Thorin's teasing. "No one could hurt you, Uncle Thorin," he said confidently.

He laughed at that. "I wish that were true. Now, seeing as how we're all done with our lasagna, should we check out what Mr. Bilbo brought us for dessert."

"Just Bilbo, please," Kili's father said in a flustered tone, rising with Thorin to help him clear the table.

Kili turned to Fili as the adults were busy chatting over the dishes. "My dad acts weird around your uncle," he said in an undertone.

"Uncle Thorin acts weird around Mr. Bilbo, too," he whispered right back. "I think they _like_ each other."

Kili furrowed his brow. "Of course, they do. So why are they acting weird."

"No, they _like_ like each other," Fili said meaningfully with a smug smirk.

His eyes widened. "Like, they want to _kiss_ each other," he hissed, both fascinated and a little disgusted by the idea.

Fili nodded enthusiastically. "We need to make sure they get together," he whispered seriously.

"Why?" Kili asked, wrinkling his nose.

He rolled his eyes. "Because if they got together and decided to move in together..."

"Then _we'd_ move in with each other!" Kili finished in excitement. "We'd be like real brothers then!"

Thorin and Bilbo came back from the kitchen before Fili could say anything else, with Bilbo balancing four plates with chocolate cake while Thorin carefully carried four glasses of milk.

"Once you boys finish your cake, I thought we'd watch a movie," Thorin suggested as he sat back down at the table.

Fili and Kili grinned at each other and nodded, tucking into their cake with gusto. It wasn't long before they were racing each other to the living room as Bilbo cleared the remaining dishes and Thorin setup the DVD player. Fili made it the living room first, claiming the entire loveseat as his own by stretching out across the cushions and giving Kili a triumph look.

The younger boy was not detered though and only smiled michievously before pouncing on Fili.

"Ugh, Kili, get off," Fili laughed, tussling with the other boy but careful to ensure that he didn't follow off the loveseat.

"Scoot over!" he squealed back, wedging his legs under Fili's so that he couldn't be dislodged.

"Boys," Thorin said sternly, giving them a look that instantly stilled them.

Fili sighed as relented, moving to one end of the loveseat. Kili ignored all the free space and curled up right under Fili, wrapping his arms around the other boy's waist and leaning into his side with a soft smile. Fili grinned down at him before slinging his arm over Kili's shoulders.

Bilbo raised an eyebrow at their seating arrangment as he walked into the living room and looked at Thorin, who just shrugged and pressed play on the DVD player. He and Bilbo settled down on the couch together, both careful to keep a certain amount of distance between them.

Kili smiled as he realized they were watching The Incredibles. It was one of his favorite movies. As the movie progressed, the two boys ended up shifting on the couch until eventually they were both lying on their sides, Kili leaning back against Fili's chest with the other's arm thrown around him to keep him in place. Fili was snoring softly in his ear by the time the Parr family was escaping from the island in the rocket, and Kili had his eyes closed as he let the sounds of the movie wash over him.

"Do you think we should worry?" Thorin asked Bilbo quietly. Kili frowned but kept his eyes closed. What were they worrying about?

"I don't think so," Bilbo answered softly. "They're very attached to each other, yes, but it's understandable given everything."

Were they talking about him and Fili? Kili didn't understand why they'd be worried about them.

"You aren't concerned about them becoming... codependent?" Kili really wanted to ask what that meant, because Thorin said it in a disapproving tone, but he didn't want to be caught eavesdropping.

Bilbo gave a low chuckle. "They're too young for us to worry about that. Besides, they don't shut out other people. They have their own interests. They just love each other. There's nothing wrong with that."

Of course there was nothing wrong with him loving Fili, Kili wanted to snap. They had promised to be brothers. Brothers loved each other.

"And if that love ends up being a little more than platonic when they get older? You wouldn't be upset by that, would you?" Thorin asked. Kili didn't know what "platonic" meant, but he was very interested to know if it would upset his dad all the same. If it _would_ upset Bilbo, Kili would have to make sure to avoid it.

"It would be a bit hypocritical if I were," Bilbo quipped. Kili relaxed. He knew what hypocritical meant. It meant that his dad couldn't be mad at him because he did the same thing.

"That's... good," Thorin said after a pause.

"Please tell me I haven't made that bad of impression that I came off as the type of parent who'd reject his son because of his personal choices?" Bilbo said lightly. Kili knew that if he opened his eyes, there'd be a smile dancing over his dad's lips.

"Of course not," Thorin was quick to assure. "I've just seen it happen before and would hate to see it happen to a kid as great as Kili."

Kili wanted to beam at that. Thorin thought he was a great kid. He pressed his lips in a firm line to keep from letting on that he was awake.

"Oh, Thorin, I'm sorry," Bilbo murmured, obviously catching something that Kili missed. "I had no idea."

"Well it's not something I advertise," he said dismissively. "I'm just angry that my father's actions indirectly caused Fili to spend two years in foster care without my knowledge. I didn't even know he _existed_, let alone that he didn't have anyone else."

Bilbo hummed in sympathy. "At least it gave the boys time to meet, though that's a small consolation, I guess."

"It's something, at least," Thorin conceded. "What about you? What made you want to adopt Kili?"

Kili listened very intently for an answer to that. He had wanted to know the answer for a while but had always been too afraid to ask.

"Well, I guess I saw a lot of myself in him," Bilbo admitted. "My parents died when I was seven and I was put into the system. Stayed in it until I graduated high school. And if it's tough being a foster kid in elementary school, it's so much worse in high school. Teenagers can suck sometimes."

"I'm sorry," Thorin said. Kili heard rustling and he cracked his eyes open a bit to see that Fili's uncle had shifted closer to his dad. He bit back a smile at that and closed his eyes again.

"Yes, well, it's in the past," Bilbo sniffed. "But I always said that I would save at least one kid from that. And when I met Kili, I knew it had to be him. He's just so special. I couldn't see that bright spirit crushed."

A warm feeling spread through Kili at Bilbo's words. His dad thought he was _special_ with _spirit_.

"I think you are a very good father."

He was the very best, Kili agreed silently.

"You're not so bad yourself, you know. Fili absolutely adores you, and I'm pretty sure Kili is on his way to hero-worshipping you," Bilbo said with a laugh. "He was hanging off your every word when you were talking about your job. And Fili seemed very proud of you."

"Fili's just happy that I finally told him a story. I don't talk about my work with him too much," he explained. "Most of my cases are not suitable for young ears. I'd hate to give him nightmares."

"Well, as a citizen of New York and a parent, I would like to say that I am very grateful that someone like you is out there hunting down criminals that would give little kids nightmares," Bilbo stated sincerely.

"Thanks. It's nice to be appreciated."

The on-screen battle between the Incredibles and the robot got particularly loud at that point, causing Fili to stir behind Kili. "The movie over?" he mumbled sleepily.

"Not quite," Thorin replied. "But I think it's time for bed."

"Yes," Bilbo agreed. "And I think it's time we got home."

"No!" Fili cried, wrapping his arm tighter around Kili, who had stopped feigning sleep at that point and was pouting up at his dad.

"Don't wanna go," he grumbled before turning and hiding in Fili's arms.

"Kili..." Bilbo said imploringly.

"He could stay the night, if he wants," Thorin offered. "They can spend tomorrow together. Fili's been in your hair for weeks. It's only fair for you to have a day off."

"Are you sure?" he asked even as Fili and Kili gave him puppy dog eyes.

"It wouldn't be a problem," Thorin said with a shrug. "I'm sure Fili wouldn't mind lending him some clothes, though they might be a bit big."

"Pleeeeese, Dad?" Kili begged, still clinging to Fili.

"Yeah, please, Mr. Bilbo?" Fili pleaded as well.

Bilbo threw his hands up in defeat. "How can I resist those looks?"

The boys cheered as both adults just shook their heads.

"I'll bring him home some time tomorrow afternoon," Thorin told him.

"Thanks," he said with a smile. "I do appreciate it. I have some errands I need to run tomorrow and I'm sure Kili would have been bored tagging along."

"It's no problem."

"Do I at least get a goodnight hug?" Bilbo asked, turning to Kili. To his surprise, both Fili and Kili surged forward to wrap their arms around him tightly before dashing back to Fili's bedroom.

"Night, Dad!" Kili called as Fili pulled him into his room.

"You can wear these to sleep in," Fili said, shoving a pair of pajamas into his hands. "They're too little on me anyway."

Kili grinned, wondering how he was ever going to sleep when he was this excited to be staying with Fili.

And if his dad and Mr. Thorin _did_ get together, they could do this _every night_.

That was enough incentive to get Kili to start scheming. When they were both huddled under Fili's covers, Kili told Fili his plans, to which the other boy agreed to with gleeful delight.

Kili couldn't wait until they were all a real family.

Tbc...

Sorry this took so long. I've been sick :(


	6. Chapter 6

Sorry updates will be coming more slowly now. School has started back :(

Chapter Six

Fili shot down every single plan Kili came up with to push Bilbo and Thorin together, much to Kili's consternation.

True, some of his plans were probably not exactly _doable_ (he really hadn't been sure how they were going to turn Thorin into a frog or he hadn't really liked the idea of giving his dad a poisoned apple). In hindsight, he could admit that maybe basing his plans on fairytales was probably a bad idea, but they were really the only experience he had with the whole love and kissing thing.

Fili's plan had been much simpler. "All we got to do is make sure they spend as much time as possible with each other," he had explained with a smirk. "Easiest way to do that is to make them bring us places together."

The plan was going well, as far as Kili could tell. He wasn't sure if Bilbo and Thorin were any closer to kissing, but they were spending lots of time together. The best part was all the places they were bringing him and Fili. They didn't even have to suggest going places anymore, which was great because Bilbo and Thorin knew about lots of fun places that Kili hadn't even known existed.

After Fili had asked for them to go to Coney Island together and Kili had asked to go the zoo, his dad had suggested a day at the aquarium. And then Fili's uncle had asked Kili and Bilbo if they wanted to go to the Museum of Natural History.

That had by far been Kili's favorite family outing (as he and Fili had taken to secretly calling them). There had been so much to see! Fili hadn't liked it as much, but he had been patient as he waited with Kili at each exhibit as he carefully read the information about each one and examined each aspect of them. He had been disappointed when they hadn't been able to get to see everything before the museum closed.

"It's my own fault," he had said to Fili fter his dad had told him they had to go. "I took too long looking at everything."

Fili had shrugged and slung an arm across his shoulders. "Cheer up, Kee. It's not like you're never gonna come back. And it's not a bad thing to want to learn everything you can about each exhibit."

His lips had twitched up into a smile at that before he began talking about the dinosaur exhibits they had seen, which he knew was one that Fili had actually liked.

Fili's favorite family outing had been seeing The Lion King on Broadway. Kili had liked it alright, but could have done without all the singing. Fili, though, was singing the songs to himself for a week after seeing it.

However, despite all their maneuvers to leave Bilbo and Thorin on their own for as much as possible, there had yet to be any kissing.

"What are we doing wrong?" Kili asked, pouting while hanging his head over the side of his bed.

Fili sitting on the floor and leaning back against the bed next to him, frowning down at Kili's Rubik's cube. He looked up at Kili's question. "Wrong with what?"

"With getting Dad and Thorin together!" he exclaimed as if it were obvious.

"You're trying to get your parents together?" Ori asked, looking up from the book he was reading. "Why?"

"Because they _like_ each other," Kili answered. "And me and Fili want to live together."

"What have you been trying?"

"We've all been going places together," Fili replied. "And we've been having more dinners and movie nights. Kili and I try and leave them alone as much as possible. I think it's going okay," he said, turning to look at Kili. "After the first couple of times, we never had to ask for us all to go together. We just have. And your face is turning red. Turn over before you give yourself brain damage."

Kili rolled his eyes but did as Fili said, mostly because he was getting a little light-headed.

"Yeah, but you don't have to ask because they probably know that you two don't like to go anywhere without each other," Ori commented, closing his book and giving them an exasperated look. "And it's not they're likely to do anything with the two of you around. How would you even know if it's working?"

He hadn't thought of that. "You mean they might have kissed or something while we weren't looking?"

"How are we supposed to know then?" Fili asked.

"We could spy on them!" Kili cried enthusiastically.

Ori snorted before opening his book again. "I don't think you could be quiet enough to spy on people, Kili."

Fili laughed while Kili scowled. "I can be sneaky!" he protested.

"You really can't, Kee," Fili quipped with a chuckle.

Kili pouted before grinning mischievously. "Fine. If I can't be sneaky to figure it out, I'll just have to be more direct," he pronounced before traipsing out of the room.

"Wait, Kili, where are you going?" Fili called after him as both he and Ori scrambled after him, catching up with him as he exited the apartment.

"You'll see," he said with a smirk before leading them down to the bakery and back to the kitchen where Bilbo was baking. "Dad?"

Bilbo turned his head and smiled at the three of them as he pulled a cake pan out of the oven. "You three look like you're up to no good."

"Have you and Thorin been kissing?" Kili asked bluntly.

"Kili!" Fili and Ori cried in horror as Bilbo fumbled and dropped the cake pan in his hands. Luckily, the pan landed right-side-up with the cake intact.

"Um... Why... How...?"

"Well," he said, interrupting his dad's inarticulate response. "You both like each other, and me and Fili have been trying to give you time alone together so we were just wondering if it was working?"

Bilbo blinked at him with his mouth moving silently for a moment before huffing a laugh. "You two are something else," he said, shaking his head and bending to pick up the pan he dropped. "Honestly, what are Thorin and I going to do with you?"

"So have you?" Kili pressed, ignoring Fili elbowing him lightly in the side.

Bilbo sighed heavily. "Yes, we have," he admitted. Kili squealed while Ori cheered and Fili just smirked smugly. "We were both going to sit down and discuss it with the both of you to make sure you were okay with it, but it looks like that really isn't necessary now."

"So when are we all going to move in together?" Kili questioned with a grin.

His dad dropped the pan he was holding again. It clattered against the counter, narrowly missing falling off the edge. "I, uh, think that's something we will have to wait and see about."

Kili frowned. "How long will we have to wait? What are we waiting for?"

"Um, well, I guess we, uh…" Bilbo's eyes flickered behind him. "Ori, why don't you give me a moment alone these two?"

"Okay, Mr. Bilbo," Ori agreed. Bilbo waited until the door swung shut before he ushered Fili and Kili closer.

"Alright, boys," he said, dropping to one knee to talk to them. "What Thorin and I have is new, okay? Neither of us know if it'll lead anywhere, and it is nowhere near serious enough to be talking about moving in together. We just have to see where the relationship goes."

"But you like each other, right?" Kili asked.

"Well, I can't speak for Thorin," Bilbo began before Fili cut him off.

"Uncle Thorin _really_ likes you," he informed helpfully.

Bilbo bit back a smile before shaking his head. "Well, I really like him, too," he stated, pink tinging his cheeks. "But it's still really early. Relationships take time to build."

"They don't in the movies," Kili replied doubtfully, causing his dad to laugh.

"Life isn't like a movie, Kili," he said, smile fading to a sober look. "Things don't always work out the way we want them to. I just don't want the two of you to be disappointed if things between Thorin and I don't work out."

"But you both like each other," Fili said, throwing a triumphant smirk at Kili and reassuring him that everything would be alright.

His dad didn't want to get his hopes up in case things didn't work out, Kili realized, but he always did that when Kili got excited over things that hadn't happened yet. He had done it when he had said he was going to find Fili for him, and look how that had turned out. Kili was absolutely sure that things would work out just the way he and Fili had wanted.

They just had to be a little patient. And that sucked, because Kili _hated_ being patient.

Being patient got a little bit easier, though, as his tenth birthday drew closer.

He didn't think much about it at first. He knew that the date was getting closer, but he didn't expect much of a fuss. When he had lived at the home, Mr. West would gave all the boys a pudding cup after dinner on the night of their birthdays. When Fili had come, he had been extra nice to Kili on his birthday, letting him choose the games they played and letting him win. Kili didn't expect much more than a "happy birthday" and maybe a cupcake from his dad.

So when Bilbo asked him who he wanted to invite to his party while they were eating dinner with Thorin and Fili, he was stunned to say the least.

"What party?" he asked dumbly, looking at Fili to see if he had any idea what Bilbo was talking about. Fili just smiled back at him, though there was an oddly angry glint in his eyes.

"Your birthday party, Kili," Bilbo answered gently, sharing a pained look with Thorin for some reason.

"Oh," he said, realizing suddenly why everyone reacted weirdly to his question. They were angry that he had never had a birthday party before. Kili didn't care though. It wasn't like he had ever had anyone that he had wanted to have a party with before anyway.

"So who do you want there?" Bilbo asked again.

"Fili and Thorin," he answered immediately.

Fili rolled his eyes at that. "Well, duh, of course Pop and me are coming."

They had decided together after they found out about Bilbo and Thorin's relationship that they needed something to call Thorin instead of "Uncle." When they became a family and moved in together, they couldn't both call Bilbo "Dad" and then just call Thorin "Uncle." It wouldn't have been fair. So they decided that they'd call him "Pop." Fili had said that Thorin had looked very pleased at the new moniker.

Kili wondered what the two of them would think once Fili started calling Bilbo "Dad" and Kili called Thorin "Pop." He wasn't really sure if Thorin would appreciate it, but he knew that his dad would be happy.

"Who else do you want to invite?" his dad prompted.

Kili shrugged. "Who do people normally invite to birthday parties?"

"Well, normally you invite your family and friends," Bilbo answered patiently.

"Why don't you invite your friend Ori?" Thorin suggested.

"Yeah!" Kili agreed.

"Are there any friends at school you want to come as well?" Bilbo asked.

Kili shook his head. "Nope," he said happily, grabbing the ketchup and squirting some on his plate.

Bilbo and Thorin both frowned at that but didn't comment. Fili scowled and speared one of his potatoes a little too fiercely with his fork. Kili ignored the other boy, knowing he didn't like the fact that none of the other kids at school liked him. Kili didn't care.

After that, Kili couldn't wait for his birthday party. His actual birthday fell on a Thursday, but Bilbo had said that it would be better to have the party the Sunday after, which mean Kili was ten for three whole days before his party.

Not that he didn't have fun on his actual birthday. Thorin and Fili picked him up at the bakery and they went to see a movie before meeting Bilbo for dinner after the bakery closed. Then they had gone for ice cream.

It was really fun, but Kili was still anxious for Sunday.

When Sunday finally came, Kili was beyond excited. Unfortunately, the party was at two and Kili woke at nine, which meant he had _five_ hours to wait. He tried to watch television or read or play with his toys, but nothing could hold his attention for too long. He would have gone to the kitchen to watch his dad cook for the party, but he had already been banished from that area from an exasperated Bilbo.

Luckily, Thorin and Fili came early for the party, arriving a little after noon and providing a much needed distraction for Kili.

"Has he drove you crazy yet?" Thorin asked Bilbo after Kili had grabbed Fili's hand and started dragging him towards his room. Kili knew he was talking about him, but didn't care.

His dad chuckled. "He's just a tiny bit excited."

Thankfully, Fili was able to keep him occupied until two. Kili hadn't even noticed it was time for the party until Ori showed up with his parents and grandfather.

"Happy birthday, Kili!" Mr. Bofur, one of Ori's dads, said with a grin. Kili beamed and thanked him. He liked Mr. Bofur. He was always very cheerful. Mr. Nori, Ori's other dad, smiled at him and handed him a brightly wrapped present.

Kili's eyes widened. "For me?"

"I'll take it and put it with the rest," Bilbo said, plucking the gift from Kili's loose grip. Kili's eyes widened further as he caught sight of the small stack of presents on the coffee table in the living room. "You can open them all after we have cake."

Kili hadn't realized he was going to get presents, especially not so many!

Bilbo shooed all three kids to the table and soon they were all eating the food Bilbo had been preparing all day. Kili stuffed his face as quickly as possible, wanting to get to the cake and ice cream.

"How's it feel to be ten now?" Ori asked curiously.

"I've been ten for three days now!" Kili crowed. "And it's great! I'm finally Fili's age!"

"Only for a couple more months!" Fili shot back, elbowing him playfully.

"Alright!" Bilbo cried finally. "Time for cake!"

Bilbo brought out a large round cake with blue frosting and ten lit candles. Kili's face hurt from smiling so much as everyone began singing "Happy Birthday." His dad set the cake down in front of him with a wink.

When the song ended, Bilbo cried out, "Now make a wish and blow out the candles!"

Kili thought hard about what he wanted to wish for. He caught Fili's eyes and grinned as he realized what he most wanted was for his family to always be together. He took a deep breath, wished hard, and blew, making sure not to miss on candle.

Everyone cheered. His dad grabbed a knife to cut the cake as he instructed Thorin to grab the ice cream out of the freezer. Kili got the first slice of cake, mouth watering as he realized the cake was chocolate, his favorite. Thorin put a scoop of chocolate ice cream on his plate as well. Kili beamed up at him.

"Thanks, Pop!" he exclaimed, turning to his ice cream and cake and not seeing how Thorin nearly dropped the tub of ice cream in surprise.

Once they were all finished with their cake, Kili raced to the presents in the living room, Fili and Ori hot on his heels as the adults followed at a more sedate pace.

"Open the one from me and Pop first!" Fili demanded, handing him a large rectangular package wrapped in shiny blue paper with a white bow.

Kili tore into it without any further prompting. "Wow," he said in awe. It was a science experiment kit. "This is amazing!"

Fili beamed. "I knew you'd like it."

"Ours next!" Ori cried.

Kili nodded, setting the science kit aside reverently and grabbing the next package. He ripped open the paper. It was a box set of _The Chronicles of Narnia_. Kili had been read _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe _in school last month and had talked Ori's ear off about it. "Ori, thank you so much!" Kili cried earnestly, eager to begin reading the whole series.

He opened the present from Mr. Dori next, and thanked him for the toy stegosaurus. The next three presents were from his dad. Bilbo got him a nice art set, a new Lego set, and a microscope.

The microscope excited him the most. "This is awesome!" he proclaimed, getting up and hugging Bilbo. "Thanks, Dad! Can I use it now?"

"Sure," Bilbo replied laughing.

The rest of the party passed quickly, with Kili, Fili, and Ori amusing themselves by finding different things to look at under Kili's new microscope.

Ori and his dads and grandfather left around four. Fili and Kili grew tired of playing with the microscope shortly after that. They peeked out of Kili's room to see what Thorin and Bilbo were doing and stifled giggles as they caught sight of them kissing through the kitchen door. Fili pulled Kili back into his room before he could give them away.

"I don't understand kissing," Kili said as soon as they were safely in his room.

"What's there to get?" Fili replied with a shrug.

"Why do people like doing it?"

"I don't know," he said. "I guess it feels nice. Like hugging with your mouth. And hugs feel nice."

"Hmmm," Kili hummed, not really satisfied with that comparison. He grinned as he got an idea. "We could find out."

"How?"

"By kissing!"

"Kissing who?" Fili asked in puzzlement.

"Each other," Kili answered with a roll of his eyes. "Just to see how it feels."

Fili considered that for a moment before nodding. "Okay," he agreed.

Kili stepped closer so that their faces were inches apart. He frowned in concentration and leaned forward, puckering his lips as Fili leaned forward and met him halfway. Their lips met for a moment, their noses brushing each other awkwardly before they pulled apart.

Kili scrunched up his face. "That didn't feel like anything," he said.

"Maybe we're supposed to move our lips? And maybe we should tilt our heads a bit?" Fili suggested. "Should we try again?"

Kili nodded and moved forward again. This time, when their lips met, heads tilted to the side, Kili moved his lips against Fili's, mimicking Fili's motions. He pulled away with a gasp at the tingling sensation that created.

"Oh," he said with wide eyes.

"Yeah," Fili muttered. "Guess that's why people like it."

Kili nodded in agreement. "Guess it isn't so gross after all."

He really wanted to kiss Fili again but figured Fili probably wouldn't want to. They already figured out why people liked kissing. Kili reckoned that kissing each other anymore would be more than what brothers usually did.

For a fleeting moment, he wished that he and Fili hadn't promised to be brothers before quickly shaking that thought away. He wouldn't give up being Fili's brother for something as dumb as kissing, even if it did feel nice.

Tbc…

So that was Fili and Kili's first kiss. I hope I handled it well...


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Now that Kili was ten, Bilbo decided that he was old enough to ride the bus to and from Fili and Thorin's apartment by himself. And even though Kili loved hanging out at home and the bakery, going over to Fili's instead added a layer of excitement to everything they did.

Of course, he didn't spend every day at Fili's. For one, Kili didn't want to leave Ori behind all the time, as his parents didn't like him to take the bus by himself. (Ori was a year and a half younger than Kili, but was so smart that he was in the same grade.) For another, Thorin was only home maybe one afternoon a week, if he was lucky, and Bilbo didn't want Kili to impose too often on Fili's Uncle Balin.

Balin, of course, had brushed aside Bilbo's concerns, telling Kili that they were welcome anytime as they made him feel young again. Kili liked the older man immediately and began calling him "Uncle" just like Fili. Uncle Balin was fantastic. He told the best stories and often took them to the park a block down the street.

Kili's favorite days to go over, though, were the days when Thorin was home.

If Thorin was upset about Kili calling him "Pop," he never let on. But whenever Thorin was home, he liked to spend as much time with Fili, and by extension Kili, as possible. Sometimes he took them to the park like Balin would, but unlike Balin, he usually joined them in whatever they were playing, be it catch or hide and seek. A couple times he took them to the movies or to get ice cream.

Kili's favorite, though, was when they just stayed at the apartment and played board or card games. He really liked when they played poker using M&Ms or Skittles as bets, even though Thorin always seemed to know when he or Fili was bluffing.

Usually, days with Thorin ended with Bilbo driving over instead of Kili taking the bus home. They'd then have dinner together and watch a movie or something before Kili and Bilbo went home. If it were a Friday or Saturday, sometimes they didn't even go home. Kili curled into bed with Fili, and he assumed his dad slept in the same bed as his pop did.

Fili and he were certain it wouldn't be too much longer before they moved in together and they were both bubbling with excitement at the thought.

Time flew by quickly for Kili, but Fili was a constant throughout it all. Winter turned into spring, and soon it was early April, which meant that in a little over a month, he would have lived with Bilbo for a year. When he lived in the home, he had never imagined being as happy as he was now. He should have expected the bottom to drop out of everything.

And of course, it wasn't one thing that went wrong, it seemed like it was everything.

The day started out bad and just seemed to get worse. His dad had to come into his room three times to wake him that morning. By the time he was up and dressed, Bilbo was more than a little cross at him, instructing him to eat his breakfast quickly so that he could get to school in time before going down to the bakery.

Of course, he spilled his orange juice in his eggs and over half the table. The only good thing was that he managed to wipe it all up before it dripped onto the carpet. Still, his breakfast was ruined and he was late, so he had to run to school on an empty stomach.

His hunger didn't help him when his class went to P.E. that morning. He hated days when they had P.E. He particularly hated when they were divided into teams because everyone was very vocal about _not_ wanting him on his team. He _didn't_ care what anyone else thought about him, not when he had Fili, Dad, and Pop, but it still hurt to hear just how much he wasn't wanted.

Not that it mattered much today. They were playing dodgeball, and as soon as their teacher blew the whistle, about ten balls managed to hit him at once, meaning he sat out most of the game.

It was a stupid game, he decided as he watched his classmates have fun dunking balls and throwing them back at the other team. What did being able to hit someone prove anyway? And how were you supposed to dodge when the entire team was throwing balls at you at once from all directions?

The morning got even worse right before lunch, which Kili hadn't even thought was possible. He didn't, however, take into account that they would be getting their English tests back that day. His stomach turned to lead as he stared at the glaringly red F on the top of the first sheet. Tears made his vision blurry the longer he looked at it.

It didn't help that the other kids sitting next to him all saw his grade and started snickering to themselves. They made sure to tell everyone else as soon as it was lunch time.

"Guess you aren't as smart as you thought, huh, Kili?" was the kindest thing they said.

"Who fails an English test?" a girl two seats down from him sneered. "You have to be pretty stupid."

"I bet his dad will take him back for sure now," the boy next to him said.

"What do you mean?" she asked, glancing at Kili with a mean little smirk. Kili tried to ignore them, but he couldn't help but worry about what they were saying. What if it were true?

"Well, you know he's adopted, Louisa," he answered matter-of-factly. "When we adopted a dog from the shelter, we took him back after a few months because he wasn't good a lot. We traded him in for a better dog. We got a younger one so we could teach it better."

"So you think the baker will take Kili back?"

The other boy shrugged. "Who wants a stupid kid?"

They were right, Kili realized as a horrible sinking sensation within him. Nobody wanted a stupid kid. And Kili was probably as stupid as they came. English was supposed to be _easy_. He could speak it perfectly well, couldn't he? Why was it so hard for him to _write_ it? How was he supposed to tell his dad that he had failed a test?

He pushed the food around on his tray, but wasn't really hungry anymore. His dad wouldn't really send him back, would he? His adoption became final right before Christmas, and Bilbo had said that it was the best present he could have ever gotten. He wouldn't _replace_ him, right?

After lunch, he got detention from his teacher for not paying attention during their math lesson. Instead of going outside to play at recess, he was stuck inside writing lines. Just as well, he thought as he wrote _I will pay attention in class_ once more. He didn't really want to be around the other kids in his class anyway.

He couldn't get the words from lunch out of his mind. He was being dumb he knew, but he couldn't help to worry.

He wasn't the smartest kid Bilbo could have adopted. He wasn't the cutest. He wasn't the best-behaved. He was loud. He was nosy. Kili couldn't think of one thing that Bilbo should like about him. Why wouldn't he take him back?

He said he wouldn't though, Kili reminded himself forcefully. He had _promised_. Bilbo never went back on his promises.

Steeled with this truth, he walked home slowly, still dreading showing the test to his dad. In order to put it off as long as possible, he bypassed the bakery and went straight up to the apartment to drop his backpack in his room. He didn't have any homework for that night so he didn't need it.

The phone was ringing when he walked in the door but clicked over to the answering machine before he could pick it up.

"Mr. Baggins," a woman's voice could be heard from the machine. "It's Miranda from Child Services in Seattle. Thank you for getting back to me about Frodo. I'm so happy you've decided to take him in. The foster system can be tough on a four year old. Please call me as soon as possible to iron out a few details."

Kili's backpack fell from his limp fingers. No. Bilbo said he wouldn't send him back. Was he really _replacing_ him?

The boy's words at lunch filtered through his mind: '_We got a younger one so we could teach it better.'_

That's what Bilbo was doing. He was getting a younger kid that he could raise to be much better than Kili. Not that that was going to be hard.

He backed out of the apartment, trying to get as far away from the answering machine as possible, as if distance from the message would solve everything.

He couldn't go back to the home. He was miserable there before Fili came, and Fili wouldn't be there.

What if Fili didn't want him anymore either? Or Thorin? Why would they want him anymore than Bilbo did? He was sure this _Frodo_ would be a great little brother for Fili. And Thorin would probably _adore_ him.

Tears streamed from his eyes as he realized he was losing his entire family. He didn't know what to do so he did the only thing he could do.

He ran.

He ran as fast as he could and as long as he could.

He finally collapsed under a tree in an unfamiliar park, curling his knees to his chest and burying his head in his arms. He cried until he had no tears left to cry and was left feeling hollow inside.

He wasn't sure how long he sat there, but he didn't move until well after the sun had set.

He still didn't know what to do. Nobody wanted him anymore because why would they? But where was he supposed to go?

He wanted Fili. Wanted to wrap himself around his big brother and tell him he was safe and loved.

He always wanted Fili though. What surprised him, though, was the ache he felt for Bilbo to hug him and tell him he was his little boy. Or for Thorin smile proudly at him. Would he ever have any of that again though?

Thunder rumbled in the distance and he looked up at the cloudy night sky. He couldn't sleep here. Not only was he fairly certain that people weren't allowed to sleep in parks, but he also didn't want to get rained on.

He could always go home. He knew that even if Bilbo was going to replace him, he wouldn't just kick him out with nowhere else to go. But Kili couldn't bring himself to face his dad knowing he wouldn't be his dad for very much longer.

Maybe Fili would let him stay with him tonight. They'd have to be sneaky about it, Kili knew. If Thorin caught him there, he'd definitely tell Bilbo about it, who'd definitely come over, if only to make sure Kili wasn't burdening Thorin.

Resolved, he got up off the ground and started trekking back the way he came, hoping to find a bus stop so he could catch the bus to Fili's. Thankfully, it didn't take him long to find one, and luckily it wasn't too long after that that the correct bus actually pulled up.

He got a strange look from the driver as he hopped on, making Kili realized it was probably late for someone his age to be out on his own. However, he had learned early on in life that if you acted as if you knew exactly what you were doing, people rarely questioned him.

He spent the entire bus ride worrying about what he would tell Fili. He wasn't entirely sure the other boy had realized how worthless Kili really was yet. If he didn't, he probably wouldn't understand why Kili had to leave.

He'd have to make sure that Fili didn't blame Bilbo, if that were the case. After all, Bilbo was amazing. It was Kili that was the problem.

He got off the bus at the by-now extremely familiar stop. Fili's apartment wasn't that far away. Thankfully, it was on the ground level. Sneaking in would be much easier if he could get Fili to let him in through his window, he decided.

Kili frowned as he considered the building in front of him. Fili lived closest to the front and to the left, but there were two windows there. One, he knew, was Thorin's room. The other was Fili's. But figuring out which was which was harder when he was looking from the outside in. If he chose wrong, Thorin would definitely catch him sneaking in.

He pictured the layout of the apartment in his mind and tried to figure out which room was where. Making a decision, he moved to the window on the left, hoping he wasn't wrong. He tapped gently on the window.

Nothing happened. Just as he was considering tapping again, the curtains were thrown open and Fili's face appeared in the window.

However, if he thought he could sneak in unnoticed by Thorin, that notion was dashed at Fili's wild shout of "Kili!"

He opened the window quickly and all but pulled the smaller boy inside, pulling him into a crushing hug. "Kili, Kili, Kili," he whispered as if it were a mantra.

Fili pulled back suddenly and glared at him. Kili shrunk into himself at the anger in those beloved blue eyes. "Never do that again!" he seethed before wrapping him into his arms again. "I was so scared I'd never see you again."

"Kili," Thorin breathed softly from the doorway before striding in and wrapping his arms around both of the boys.

Kili stood there wrapped in the arms of his pop and brother, confused over their actions. What was going on?

"Your father is on his way," Thorin said finally. "Maybe you and I could talk before he gets here?"

He said this mostly to Fili, who didn't look nearly ready to let go of Kili just yet. Kili nodded in agreement anyway, dread settling in his stomach. Fili very reluctantly loosened his grip on the younger boy and let him follow Thorin into the living room.

Kili sat down on the couch in trepidation. What could Thorin want to talk to him about?

Thorin sat down next to him. "Kili?" he asked gently. "Why did you run away?"

He bit his lip and looked down, examining the scuff marks on his shoes in order to avoid meeting Thorin's eyes.

"Kili?" he prompted softly, wrapping a strong arm around Kili's small frame.

"I found out… Dad," he said, hesitating over calling Bilbo "Dad," not sure if he had the right anymore. "I found out he was going to send me back to the home, and I didn't know what to do."

"Kili, look at me," Thorin said seriously, placing a hand on each of his shoulders and turning them both so that he could face him. "Your father loves you and will _never_ send you back. Why would you think that?"

He shrugged. "Some kids at school were saying that he'd replace me because I'm not smart or anything special, and then I heard the message about Dad getting another kid on the answering machine…"

"Kili, if your classmates said you weren't smart or special, then it was only because they were jealous because you _are_ so smart and so special," Thorin stated firmly. "And even if you weren't, that wouldn't matter to either your father or me. You're our son, and we love you. You don't have to earn it or deserve it."

Kili blinked up at him, hardly daring to believe his words. "I'm your son too?" he asked.

He smiled at him. "Of course, you are. Just like Fili is, and just like Frodo will be when he gets here. Now I'm sorry you had to find out about Frodo like that. Bilbo and I had planned to talk about him to both you and Fili this weekend. But I promise you, he's not replacing anyone. We love you and that's not changing, okay?"

Kili threw himself in Thorin's arms, burying his face in his chest. "I love you, too, Pop," he whispered thickly.

Thorin held him in his arms for a few moments before pulling away. "Why don't you go wait for your father to get here with Fili? He may spontaneously combust if I keep you away any longer."

Kili nodded with a small smile before darting back to Fili's room. The blond boy was standing by the door waiting for him and pulled him into his arms as soon as he saw him.

"I can't believe you ran away because you thought you weren't wanted," Fili whispered harshly in his ear, obviously having eavesdropped on Kili and Thorin's conversation. "Even if Pop and Dad _didn't_ want you, _I_ always will."

He just leaned into Fili, letting him drag him to the bed and curling around him. "I just thought… well, you all are so great, maybe I didn't deserve you?"

"We wouldn't even be a family if it weren't for you," Fili muttered into his hair. "How can you say that? You deserve _everything_, Kee."

"If you say so," he mumbled.

"You scared me so much," Fili confessed, tightening his grip on the smaller boy. "When you never came to the bakery, Dad freaked out. And then Pop left work to help look for you, and I could tell that even if he was trying to be calm, he was scared. And I thought… I thought I'd never see you again, Kee."

Fili's voice was thick with tears, and Kili felt sick with guilt. "I'm sorry, Fee," he sniffled, clinging to him and tucking his head under his chin. "I didn't even think… I thought no one would care."

"Well you were wrong," he accused. "You were _so wrong_!"

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"Just don't do it again."

"Okay."

They lay there until Bilbo arrived, all but running into the room and scooping Kili into his arms.

"Kili," his dad murmured. "Thank God you're okay. I was so worried."

"I'm sorry," he said, wondering how often he'd feel the need to say that in the coming days.

He really hadn't meant to upset anyone. Looking back, he could see that it may have been a bit foolish to just run like he had, to believe that no one would care. It may have been excusable a few months ago, when he still wasn't used to people caring, but he should have known that his dad, pop, and Fili would care.

"It's alright," Bilbo assured. "Just don't do it again."

Thorin cleared his throat to call their attention. "I've made us a pallet in the living room," he said. "I didn't figure any of us wanted to let Kili out of our sight tonight, and my bed is definitely not big enough for all four of us."

Bilbo shot him a grateful look as he ushered Kili out of the room, Fili right on his heels.

"Who's Frodo?" Kili asked finally after they had all settled down onto the blankets.

"He's my cousin who will be coming to live with us," his dad replied. "But we'll talk about it in the morning, okay? I think we all could use some sleep after today."

Kili nodded, and with Fili snuggled up to him from behind and his dad and pop's arms thrown over both of them, he faded off into sleep.

Tbc…

So my grades finally came in for last semester, and I didn't do as well as I wanted. So please validate my self-worth by reviewing!


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Kili's stomach woke him up before the sun was up the next morning. He frowned as his stomach rumbled painfully, suddenly remembering that he didn't really eat anything the day before. Fili was still sound asleep, lying half on-top of him. Bilbo and Thorin, though, must have already woken up.

Hearing low voices coming from the kitchen, he carefully extracted himself from Fili and padded towards the door. He paused, however, as he heard his name.

"I really thought we had gotten past Kili's distrust of us," Bilbo said with a soft sigh. "I don't know what else I can do."

Guilt greater than he had ever felt before welled within Kili. His dad was blaming himself for Kili's stupidity. He had never wanted that to happen.

"This isn't about us," Thorin murmured. Kili peaked around the corner of the doorway to see the detective wrap his arms around Bilbo from behind. "Kili's been hurt so much in his short life. I don't think anyone ever showed him any affection until he met Fili."

"Then how do we help him? How do we get him to understand that we love him no matter what?"

"We'll just have to show him. Every day."

"I don't know how to do that other than what I've been doing," Bilbo replied, looking so heartbroken that Kili couldn't help but rushing into the kitchen and wrap his arms around him.

"I know you love me, Dad," he said in a small voice, hiding his face in Bilbo's shirt. "You loved me so much, though, that I didn't think I deserved it."

"Oh, Kili," his dad whispered, kneeling down and pulling him tightly to him. "You deserve all the love in the world. No matter what those kids at school say."

"What about my English test?" he asked, hating to bring it up in case Bilbo didn't know about his F.

"Is that what set this all off?" Bilbo asked, pulling back slightly and smiling down at him. "Kili, I don't care what grades you make in school, as long as you try your best. That's all I can ask you to do."

"And you're not replacing me with Frodo because he's younger and not as messed up as me?"

"You are not messed up," he stated firmly. "And you can _never_ be replaced. I think there's room in this family for one more kid. And wouldn't you like to be a big brother?"

Kili thought the question over. He could be a big brother to Frodo just like Fili was to him. He could make sure that Frodo was happy and that he didn't get picked on by other kids and teach him all sorts of things. The more he considered it, the more he liked the idea.

A smile crept over his face and he nodded. "When is he coming?"

His dad opened his mouth to answer but Kili's growling stomach interrupted his reply. Bilbo frowned down at his son's stomach. "Goodness, Kili!" he cried in realization. "You probably haven't eaten since lunch yesterday! Come on, let's get some food in you."

Kili didn't bother correcting his dad and telling him he didn't eat lunch. It didn't really seem that important, especially after Bilbo had set a stack of pancakes in front of him. The smell of breakfast quickly woke Fili up as well, and soon they were all seated at the table together.

They ate in comfortable silence until Bilbo broke it. "I guess now is as good a time as ever to talk about what will happen when Frodo gets here."

"Why is he coming to live with us?" Kili asked. Now that he didn't feel threatened by him, he was curious about the small boy joining their family.

"His parents died, and I'm the only relative he has," Bilbo explained simply. "Now we've been talking about it, and Thorin and I have decided that, since we both consider both of you sons and since we're getting a new son in Frodo, maybe it was time for us all to become a proper family and move in together."

Fili and Kili grinned at each other. If Frodo was the cause of them finally moving in together, Kili decided the other boy couldn't be that bad.

"Are we moving in here or are they moving into our apartment?" Kili questioned, bouncing in his seat in excitement.

Bilbo chuckled. "Well, neither apartments are really big enough for a family of five. We'll have to look for another place…"

Thorin cleared his throat. "Actually, I may have found a place for us." Bilbo looked at him in askance. "My realtor found a four bedroom house in Bayside that she thinks will be perfect for us. Great schools in the area, quiet neighborhood, about a 20 minute drive from the bakery."

"Wait, you hired a realtor?" his dad asked in confusion. "And is a house in Bayside in our budget?"

"Don't worry about the money," Thorin said dismissively. "We're fine on that front."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bilbo asked, voice still confused but on the edge of testy.

"Pop is rich," Fili piped in helpfully, taking a large bite of pancake and giving their dad a syrupy grin.

Bilbo sputtered, unable to articulate whatever it was going through his head. Kili, though, didn't have that problem.

"Since when?" he asked innocently.

"Since always," Fili explained while Thorin looked up at the ceiling with a long-suffering expression on his face. "My great grandfather left him a _very_ big trust fund before my grandfather disowned him."

"Then why do you work?" Kili directed his question at Thorin. He had always thought that people worked because they needed money.

Thorin scowled. "I work because I want to make my own way in this world and not just laze about living off my grandfather's money. Besides," he said with a small smile at Fili and Kili. "I enjoy keeping my city safe for my family."

"Were you going to tell me about this?" Bilbo asked suddenly.

Kili froze, his eyes darting anxiously between the two adults. He had never heard his dad use that strange, strained tone before, but he definitely didn't like it. Fili surreptitiously took his hand under the table and squeezed it.

"Does it change anything?" Thorin challenged. Kili tightened his grip on Fili's hand. This was starting to sound more and more like a fight, and he _really_ didn't like it.

Bilbo glared at Thorin for a moment or two before letting the tension drain out of him. "Of course not," he sighed. "I just don't like feeling like your hiding things from me."

His pop reached across the table and grabbed his dad's hand, smiling softly. "I wasn't trying to hide it," he reassured. "I just don't like talking about my family. I should have told you before though. I'm sorry."

Something loosened inside of Kili's stomach as Bilbo smiled back at Thorin. "It's alright. I guess it just surprised me."

"So when are we moving?" Fili asked, giving Kili a comforting glance.

"Well, I was thinking we could go see the house together today, and if we like it, I'd make an offer," Thorin suggested, looking at Bilbo hopefully.

"That sounds like a great idea," he answered.

Kili's excitement was back in full swing now. He grinned as he dived back into his pancakes. It felt too good to be true. Yesterday, he had thought he had lost everything, and now, his family was going to see a house they were going to move into together.

"Dad, my backpack is at our apartment," he informed after he finished off his pancakes and chocolate milk.

"I think after the day we had yesterday, starting your Spring Break a little early by missing today might be warranted," his dad answered. "Why don't we all get dressed and see if Thorin can get a hold of the realtor so we can see this house today? You've got clothes in Fili's room, right?"

Kili nodded before following Fili to his room.

"You okay?" Fili asked as soon as they were alone.

"Yeah," he said, gnawing on the inside of his lip. "You're not still mad about yesterday, are you?"

He sighed before wrapping his arms around him. "Kili," he murmured into his hair. "I was never _mad_. Not really. You just scared me."

"I didn't think you were afraid of anything," Kili admitted. "You always seem so brave."

Fili scoffed and pulled away, turning to rummage through his dresser for clothes for both of them. "I'm scared of plenty stuff. Now get dressed. I want to see this house we might live in."

Kili frowned, not sure he liked the idea of Fili being scared of anything. He'd have to make sure that _he_ didn't scare the other boy anymore. That would be much easier when they lived together, he realized with a grin. He was sure that if he had seen Fili beforehand, he wouldn't have run.

The problem came when he was left alone with his thoughts.

Putting it out of his mind, he tugged on the clothes that Fili threw at him. Once he was dressed, he turned towards the door. Fili's voice, though, stopped him before he could open it.

"You should never think you don't deserve my love."

Kili's breath caught in his throat. He knew it shouldn't surprise him, but Fili had never told him that he loved him before. Happiness swelled within him, and he felt nearly invincible. Then he focused on everything else Fili said, and he bit his lip. How could he deserve Fili's love?

"Kili?"

"You were listening earlier?" he asked, not really knowing what else to say.

Fili rolled his eyes. "You woke me up when you got up. And you can't talk because you were listening in on Pop and Dad's conversation. But I need you to know that don't question my love. Please, Kili."

He sighed and leaned against the door, looking down at his shoes to avoid Fili's eyes. It wasn't fair, Fili saying "please." How was he supposed to deny him anything?

"I've never questioned _you_," he tried explaining. "You're perfect so—"

"I'm nowhere near perfect!" Fili argued, interrupting him. Kili's head snapped up at the blond's vehemence. "I'm selfish and greedy. I hate sharing. I'm messy. I never clean my room unless Pop makes me."

Kili shook his head. "You're the most giving person I know!" he protested. "And everyone can be messy sometimes."

"And sometimes people can fail tests. Even people as smart as you," Fili pointed out with a smirk. "Would you still love me if I were to fail a test?"

"Of course!" he exclaimed, scandalized at the question. "Nothing you could do would make me stop… oh. Is it the same for me?"

The blond grinned. "Finally getting it, huh? Next time you think you're not loved because of something you did or something you didn't do, ask yourself if you'd stop loving _me_ if I did the same thing."

"But that answer's always gonna be no," Kili said in confusion. "I'll always love you, Fee."

"And I'll always love you," he replied confidently. "So will Dad and Pop. That's what family means."

Kili frowned as he thought that over. The only experience he had of family before he met Fili was his mom and his first dad (he refused to think of him as his _real_ dad because that felt like a slight to Bilbo). He knew, though, that his first family wasn't a normal family so maybe he should stop making assumptions about his new family based on his old.

Why did everything seem so simple when Fili explained it?

"Come on," Fili said with a soft smile, taking Kili by the hand and pulling open the door. "Let's go convince Pop to buy us a house."

The realtor had been all too happy to show the house to them that morning. Thorin had muttered something about her wanting the commission, but Kili didn't know what that meant. What he _did_ know, though, was that this house was _amazing_.

It looked just like the houses he saw sometimes on television, in shows or movies where families were always loving and understanding and everything always worked out in the end.

He and Fili pounded up the stairs, leaving their parents to talk to the realtor lady as they explored the bedrooms.

"These two are connected by a bathroom!" Fili cried after poking around the rooms to the left of the landing. Kili lit up at that. He and Fili could have connecting rooms!

They opened the remaining three doors, finding another bathroom and two other bedrooms, one much bigger with yet _another_ bathroom. That would probably be Dad and Pop's rooms. The other would be Frodo's, Kili decided. Frodo was little so it was probably better he was closer to their parents. Besides, he had to have a room by Fili.

"Let's go look outside!" he suggested, dragging Fili down the stairs once more.

"—and there is another half-bath in the basement," the realtor lady was telling their parents as Kili made for the door.

"Boys," Thorin called before they could make it outside. "Come over here."

Kili pouted but aborted his attempt to explore the outside of the house, letting Fili instead lead them over to the adults.

"How do you like the house?" their pop asked.

"When can we move in?" Kili crowed in excitement, causing the adults to chuckle.

"I think we can assume they approve," Bilbo commented lightly.

"And do you?" Thorin said, looking at him hopefully.

The baker smiled at him. "It looks perfect to me."

"Excellent!" the realtor said with a grin. "Would you like to make an offer?"

Thorin smiled at his family before turning to her. "I think we would."

"Perfect," she said cheerfully. "If we play our cards right, I can get this closed and get you moved in by the beginning of summer."

Kili grabbed Fili's hand, vibrating in excitement. This was really happening. They were going to be a family.

He grinned at Fili before glancing at their parents. Then again, he thought happily, they already were.

Tbc…

This chapter is disappointing, I know. Sorry it's mostly filler. But Frodo next chapter! And maybe another familiar face or two.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Frodo came before they moved into the house. For some reason, Kili hadn't expected that to happen, and Frodo wasn't really what Kili expected either. Not that he had really expected anything. But he didn't think the small boy would be so… sad.

Kili didn't like seeing anyone sad, but even more so with Frodo. Something about those big blue eyes framed by those black curls that just tugged at Kili's heartstrings. So Kili took it upon himself to make the young boy smile as much as possible.

Luckily, he seemed to have a knack for drawing a smile out of Frodo. Sometimes, he was even able to get a giggle. Kili had puffed up with pride the first time that had happened.

They had been sitting in Kili's bed, which Frodo had been sharing for the few weeks they would have to wait to move into the new house. Bilbo was reading them a bedtime story. Well, he was reading _Frodo_ a bedtime story. Kili was too old for that sort of thing. But Frodo seemed to like it.

He had really meant to just listen and let his new little brother enjoy the story. It was one that Kili knew from school, the one about Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but he had never really understood it. It was all he could do to hold back his questions until the end of the story.

"So she just runs away after she breaks into their house and eats their food and messes with all their stuff?" he asked, nose scrunched up in confusion. "Who does that?"

"I never understood it either," Bilbo admitted with a chuckle.

"It doesn't make any sense!" Kili exclaimed, gesturing wildly with his arms. "Where did this girl come from? Did she have parents? Was she hungry and cold and looking for help? If so, why was she so picky? Why was she in the woods anyway?"

He would have gone on, but any was interrupted by a soft tittering at his side. He turned his head and saw Frodo giggling quietly at him. Kili felt pride swell within him as he realized this was the first time he had heard his new little brother laugh.

"Kili's silly," the small boy said with a smile as he noticed both of them looking at him.

"Oh, I'm silly, am I?" he said with a mischievous smirk before pouncing on Frodo (gently, because he definitely didn't want to hurt him). Frodo squealed as Kili's fingers found his unprotected sides and tickled him mercilessly.

"Yes! You're silly!" Frodo cried, trying to squirm away while laughing. "Save me, Bilbo!"

"Should I save you from the Kili Monster?" the baker asked innocently. "That sounds dangerous."

"Yes!" he laughed. "Save me from the Kili Monster!"

"I'll show you monster!" Kili growled playfully, moving his fingers to Frodo's armpits, causing him to squeal once more.

"Bilbo, help!"

His dad chuckled before scooping Frodo up and away from Kili. "I've saved you, my boy!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "The Kili Monster won't get you again!"

"Yay!" he cheered before scowling at Kili and shaking his finger in his direction. "Bad Kili Monster!"

"Curses!" Kili cried dramatically, shaking his fist. "I'll get you next time!"

"No!" Frodo protested, giggling. "Bilbo will protect me!"

"That I will," Bilbo agreed, chuckling lightly. "Now, time for all good little boys to be in bed!"

"But I'm not sleepy," Frodo said, words belied by a yawn.

"Well, I think you should try to sleep anyway. Kili is going to bed, too," he said, giving the older boy a meaningful look.

Kili frowned at that. It wasn't his bedtime yet. But when Frodo climbed into the bed and looked at him expectantly, he sighed and climbed in after him. He couldn't be too put out, though, when the smaller boy immediately curled up next to him and wrapped his little arms around him.

Bilbo smiled down at them and kissed them both on the forehead. "Goodnight, boys."

"Goodnight, Dad," Kili whispered, not wanting to disturb Frodo whose eyes were already starting to close. "Love you."

"Love you too."

Of course, no matter how many smiles and laughs Kili managed to draw out of Frodo, he still seemed to get so _sad_ sometimes. Kili might have been good at distracting him from it, but Fili was better at making it better somehow. Whenever Fili came over (which happened more often as they had stopped spending time at Thorin's apartment for some reason), he would always make the time to talk to Frodo by himself.

Kili hadn't expected to feel the stab of jealous that hit him every time this happened. For some reason, he hadn't considered that getting Frodo as a little brother also meant that _Fili_ was getting Frodo as a little brother. He wasn't sure he wanted to share Fili with Frodo, or anyone really.

But he really couldn't be selfish enough to deny Frodo something that made him less sad, even if it made _him_ sad. So he decided to keep his dejection to himself. Apparently, he didn't do a very good job, though, because Fili took him aside after about the third of his and Frodo's little chats.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly, looking at him in concern.

Kili swallowed back the things he was feeling and nodded.

Fili just looked at him knowingly. "He's not replacing you, you know."

"I know," he replied in a small voice, even though he didn't really believe it.

"He's not," Fili insisted with a roll of his eyes. "Just because I love him doesn't mean I love you any less."

Which made sense to Kili. After all, he loved his pop but that didn't mean he loved his dad any less. And he loved Frodo, too, which didn't make him love Fili any less. But he loved Fili best of everyone. He just wanted Fili to love him best too.

And that was very selfish, he knew. He probably shouldn't even love one person in his family more than the others. Something was probably wrong with that.

"We're both your little brothers now," he said instead of trying to explain his thinking.

"Yeah, but you're more than that," Fili replied with a shrug.

"I am?" Kili asked. He always thought that being brothers was more than anything else they could be. What was more than brothers?

"You're also my best friend," Fili said simply.

Kili grinned at that. "So what do you talk to Frodo about anyway?" he asked, changing the subject. "You're better at making him feel better than me."

"He misses his parents," he answered with a shrug. "I just talk about how I do too sometimes but that it gets better and that it's okay to be happy without them."

"Oh," he said ruefully. He didn't know how to relate to that. He had never really missed his real parents. "Do you get sad like Frodo then?"

"I used to," Fili admitted, wrapping an arm around Kili's shoulders. "But then I met you and then Pop found me and then we all became a family. I don't get sad anymore. I miss them at times, but that's different than sad."

"Good," he said, wrapping his arms around Fili's waist and burying his face in his chest. "I don't want you to ever be sad. Sorry I never noticed before."

"You made the sadness go away," Fili shrugged, returning Kili's hug. "There wasn't much to notice."

They moved into the new house the week after school let out. Bilbo and Thorin had been working the previous week to get most of their things moved in so the transition was relatively painless for Kili, Fili, and Frodo.

Kili loved the new house. He loved having a backyard, he loved having his entire family live with him, and he especially loved having a room next to Fili's.

Frodo seemed to like it as well, not that that didn't stop him from sneaking into bed with either Fili or Kili at times. As the summer wore on, though, those occasions became fewer and more far between. Kili was also glad to see that he became less sad as June and July quickly went by.

Not that Kili was happy with the summer going by so quickly. It would be tough going from spending all of his time with Fili to going to a different school from him and being around kids that thought he was weird. He wished he could go to the middle school with Fili, but comforted himself with the knowledge that he'd be going there next year. And maybe the kids in his class would be nicer to him at this new school.

His first run in with one of his future classmates, though, didn't leave him much hope.

It was well into August. Bilbo was taking Frodo to the dentist to get a cavity fixed so Thorin had to take Fili and Kili with him to the grocery store. Grocery shopping was boring, Kili quickly decided as he and Fili trailed after their pop in the produce section. He was almost jealous of Frodo who was getting his teeth drilled instead.

That was when a cool voice caught Thorin's attention as he was squeezing tomatoes.

"Thorin Durin, it has been a while."

All three of them looked up to see a tall, pale blond walking towards them, with two kids in tow as well. Thorin's face did a weird spasm as if it weren't entirely sure which emotion it wanted to express before smoothing into an emotionless mask.

"Thranduil," he greeted calmly. "It's actually Thorin Oakenshield now."

Kili frowned at that. Fili's last name was Durin. For some reason, he had just assumed Thorin's was as well.

"Oh yes," the pale blond drawled. "I had heard that you had a falling out with your family. Shame." Kili didn't really think whoever this Thranduil was thought it was a shame. It sounded like he couldn't care less.

"Yes, well, it happened," he said stiffly. Kili decided then and there that he did not like Thranduil one bit. "Are these your children?"

"Ah, yes," Thranduil replied, waving gracefully towards the blond and redhead following him. "This is my son Legolas," he nodded towards the blond boy. "And Tauriel."

Kili frowned at the dismissive introduction of the girl, but Tauriel didn't seemed bothered by it.

"And what grades will you two be going into?" Thorin asked the two of them.

"They'll both be going into the 5th grade," Thranduil answered for them before either child could respond.

Their pop looked a little annoyed at that, but smiled anyway. "So will my Kili," he told Kili's future classmates. Kili grinned at Thorin calling him _his_. It wasn't a new concept anymore, but it still felt nice. "Fili here will be starting at the middle school."

Kili examined Legolas and Tauriel with a little more interest. The boy didn't seem too interested in Kili, but his sister was giving him an appraising look. Despite her father, she looked like someone Kili might want to get to know. She didn't seem like the other girls that Kili had come across. She wasn't wearing anything with a skirt or ruffles or anything, which was a definite plus in her favor.

She seemed to find him wanting, though, as she looked away haughtily and inspected the display of peppers near her.

Kili pouted. How could she not like him already? He hadn't even said anything!

Fili nudged his shoulder and sent him an encouraging smile. He grinned back at him. Who cared if some stuck-up little girl didn't like him? He had Fili.

Thorin quickly wrapped up the conversation with Thranduil, seemingly extremely happy to get away from the blond he obviously knew from his past.

Grocery shopping was uneventful after that and soon they were back at the house and unpacking the bags from the car. Bilbo and Frodo still weren't back yet, which Thorin seemed particularly unhappy about for some reason. He took his time putting away the groceries, telling Fili and Kili that he didn't need any help. Thorin then went about the house, straightening things that really didn't need straightening.

Kili looked at Fili in confusion. It looked like their pop was putting something off, but he wasn't sure what it could be.

Finally, Thorin sighed and called for them both to come sit in the living room with him.

He sat them both on the couch and moved an armchair so that he was sitting directly across from them.

"Alright, boys," he said finally, looking resigned. "Your dad thinks… Well, your dad and I think that you're both at the age where, um, we need to have a discussion with you. About things that will be… that your bodies will be going through…"

Kili didn't think he had ever seen their pop fumble awkwardly through talking like this.

"So anyway," Thorin continued uncomfortably. "Your bodies will be changing…"

"What do you mean changing?" Kili asked in fascination, envisioning sprouting wings for some reason.

The detective cleared his throat. "Well, your voice will be changing for one. And you'll be growing hair in certain areas."

"What areas?" he asked eagerly. He could feel Fili beside him biting back laughter, but he really wanted to know.

"Your… private areas," Thorin answered. "And you'll be getting certain _urges_, which are completely natural."

"Urges to do what?" Kili was getting very frustrated by Thorin's vague terms.

Thorin looked at the ceiling and didn't say anything for a moment before taking a deep breath. "Um, sexual urges. Urges to have sex. You'll want to, well, touch your private area, and have others touch you there, and touch others' private areas."

Kili couldn't fathom why he would want that. "Why?"

"Because you're getting older and once you hit puberty, your hormones will make you want to do these things," Thorin explained in a rush, obviously wanting to get as much information out as quickly as possible. "And when you do, your dad and I want you to remember that sex is a very important step in a relationship and should only be done with someone you trust and both of you should want it. And use a condom. Any more questions?"

Fili shook his head but Kili thought for a moment before opening his mouth. "What's the difference between liking girls and liking boys?"

Thorin stared at him with his mouth open for a minute before breathing in deeply through his mouth and letting it out slowly through his nose. "It's just a matter of who you find attractive."

"But how do you _know_?" Kili pressed.

"Kili, just find the person you want to spend every moment of your time with and who you want to share every piece of yourself with," Thorin replied with a soft smile.

He frowned at the answer. That wasn't very helpful. The only person who had ever and could ever meet that criteria was Fili. No one would ever take his place.

"Any other questions?" their pop asked.

There was a beat of silence before Kili asked, "What's a condom?"

Fili finally lost his battle for composure and burst out laughing.

"And I'm done," Thorin said, throwing up his arms in defeat. "Neither of you are allowed to have sex ever."

Kili wasn't sure that was fair, but since he really didn't understand why anyone would _want_ to anyway, he wasn't too upset by it.

Fili just laughed more at Thorin's proclamation.

Tbc…

So there's probably only going to be one or two more chapters before I get into the real meat of the story, and I promise my writing will be less choppy when that happens.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Summer, like all good things, came to an end, of course. Which left Kili standing in front of his new school, gripping his backpack straps tightly in trepidation.

It wasn't fair. He thought that, with his new family, he wouldn't have to face school alone anymore. But with Fili at the middle school and Frodo at preschool, Kili was left to face the horrors of elementary school on his own.

He took a deep breath as he walked into the building. He knew where his homeroom was. He had come here with Bilbo for "Meet the Teachers" day last week. He had hoped to meet at least one of his future classmates then, but hadn't had the opportunity. It would have been nice to know at least _one_ person going into class.

He froze as he walked into his classroom and saw a familiar blond and redhead sitting by themselves in the back corner of the class. Well, he had wanted to know someone, he thought with an internal groan. Why did it have to be _them_? He had thought he would be walking into a room where nobody liked him yet because nobody _knew_ him. Instead, he was walking into a room where two people already disliked him.

Maybe if he steered clear of them, he could still make some friends in his class. Or at least not alienate everyone from him.

With that in mind, he chose a desk in the nearest front corner, as far away from Legolas and Tauriel as possible. He wasn't super thrilled with sitting in the front of the room. He usually tried not to sit so close to the teacher. In his experience, they never tended to like him anymore than his classmates did. However, maybe if he stayed away from those two, maybe they'd leave him alone.

Most of the other children were gathering in their groups of friends, obviously catching up and talking about their summers. It was tough to realize that most of his classmates had known each other for years probably. The notable exceptions were Tauriel and Legolas, who seemed content to sit alone in the back, and a small, redheaded boy sitting in the opposite back corner.

Kili hesitated by the desk he initially chose, biting his lip as he thought. On one hand, if this boy was sitting by himself, he might be feeling just as alone as Kili. It would be nice to be able to make a friend on the first day of school. On the other hand, though, he might be sitting alone out of choice and might be upset if Kili sat near him. Then he would have to deal with the embarrassment of having been rejected, which Legolas and Tauriel would _definitely_ see.

However, if the boy _was_ as lonely as Kili, he could very well just ignore him out of fear of rejection. Steeling his nerves, he marched down the row to where the boy was sitting alone and tentatively sat his backpack down in the desk next to his.

"Hi," he said with a shaky smile. "Do you mind if I sit by you?"

The boy looked at him with wide grey eyes. "Um, okay," he answered uncertainly.

Kili's smile brightened as he settled down and eyed at his potential new friend with interest. He wanted to ask why the other boy was wearing long sleeves when it was so warm outside, but he figured that was probably none of his business. "My name is Kili," he said instead. "My family just moved to the neighborhood. What's your name?"

"Faramir," he replied softly.

Kili opened his mouth to ask why Faramir kept looking at him like he was going to disappear, but a voice interrupted him.

"Faramir, don't tell me you're trying to trick the new kid into actually being friends with a loser like you?" The kid who spoke was sneering down at Kili's new friend while his two friends laughed meanly at his question.

"Just leave me alone, Billy," Faramir muttered, looking down in shame.

"I'd rather be friends with him than a bully like you," Kili retorted though, standing up and giving the three the dirtiest look he could muster.

Billy and his friends' eyes shifted to look for the teacher, and seeing her otherwise occupied with another teacher in the hallway, smirked at Kili. "Looks like the new kid thinks he can take all of us," Billy told the others.

By now the other kids had started to observe them, but Kili didn't expect any of them to step forward and stand up for him and Faramir. Nobody had ever stood up for him before. It came as a surprise, then, when someone shoved past Billy and his friends to stand next to him.

"Let's even up the odds then," the newcomer all but growled, bushy red hair all but quivering in indignation.

The blond behind Billy rolled his eyes. "Guess all the new kids think they're something special," he sneered.

"We'll just have to show them how things are around here," Billy stated.

"Or you could just go be pathetic somewhere else," Tauriel suggested, coming up behind Kili with an obviously reluctant Legolas standing at her back.

Kili was rather nervous about what would happen next. It may have been five to three, but he had no idea if the kids standing near him would stick with him if things escalated further. Thankfully, the teacher chose that moment to step back into the room and call for the students to find their seats. To his surprise, the redheaded boy he didn't know immediately took the desk in front of Faramir.

"Gimli," he said with a nod to both of them.

It took a moment for Kili in his dumbfounded state to realize he was introducing himself.

"I'm Kili, and this is Faramir," he returned before being shocked as Tauriel slid gracefully into the desk in front of him. She looked back at him with a smile before turning her attention to the teacher in the front of the room. Legolas frowned at her seating choice but followed her lead and took the desk in front of her.

Kili really wasn't sure what had just happened. He glanced at Faramir, who looked just as lost as he felt.

Neither of them, though, got a chance to really talk to any of the other three until lunchtime.

"So are we friends now?" Kili asked, too curious to worry about his bluntness. Faramir looked terrified at the question, whether because he was afraid of the answer or because he was scared of the others' reaction, Kili didn't know.

Tauriel laughed at the question though, which left Kili amazed at how musical her laughter was. "I suppose we are," she replied. Her brother, though, didn't look too thrilled at the prospect, but he didn't refute her answer.

"Of course we are," Gimli declared as if it were a foregone conclusion. "Why wouldn't we be?"

Kili just shrugged and pushed around the peas on his tray with his fork. "Just never really had friends at school before," he said, not counting Fili, of course. Fili was always in a category by himself.

"Me neither," Faramir admitted, giving Kili a small understanding smile.

"Never had… Well, that ends now!" Gimli blustered as if personally offended on their behalves.

"Yes, it does," Tauriel seconded in a calm but firm voice, green eyes flinty as they flickered to where their classmates were sitting.

Kili smiled at their support but couldn't help but feel a bit nervous as Legolas surveyed both him and Faramir with appraising eyes. He could only guess what was going on in the blond's head, but he was probably trying to figure out what it was about the two of them that had scared off so many people in the past.

Kili met his eyes head-on, deciding he didn't care what the other thought of him. Faramir he could probably count on to be his friend, given their newfound kinship in alienation. Gimli didn't look like he would be scared away by anyone, let alone a scrawny boy like Legolas. The only one the blond's appraisal might scare off would be Tauriel, but Kili didn't think Tauriel was the type of person to let her decision be influenced by anyone else.

So he'd let Legolas size him up all he wanted. He couldn't hurt him.

It came as a shock to him, then, when the blond's lip curved into an approving smile.

This was probably the most confusing days of school Kili had ever had.

"So how'd it go?" Fili asked him as soon as he walked through the door, dropping his bag by the door and flopping down on the couch next to Kili.

"It was… different," he answered, scrunching up his nose as he searched for the words to describe his day. "I guess I made friends?"

"You mean you don't know for sure?" he teased, blue eyes sparkling with laughter.

"Well, I mean, they said they were my friends now, but it's just weird, you know? I've never had friends before," Kili tried to explain.

"And what do you call me?" Fili cried in half-feigned affront. "And Ori?"

"I mean friends in school," he backpedaled quickly. "Obviously I've had Ori as a friend. And you're much more than a friend," he said with a roll of his eyes.

Fili leaned back in satisfaction and threw an arm over his shoulders. "So how'd you make these friends then?"

Kili related the story of the bullies that morning, but regretted it when Fili's eyes flashed with anger. "It wasn't a big deal though," he assured quickly, not wanting Fili to be upset.

"I don't like other kids picking on you," the blond stated with a frown.

"Well, technically, they were picking on Faramir," he pointed out. "But I couldn't not do anything! I had to stand up for him, Fili!"

Fili smiled at him. "I know you did. And I'm proud of you for that. But if it comes to actual fighting, try and postpone it to after school, okay? That way I can help," he said with a wink.

Kili laughed. "I'll try," he promised. "But what about you? You didn't make any new friends you're gonna spend all your time with now, are you?"

That was Kili's not-so-secret fear. That Fili would make new friends and forget all about him. It was silly, he knew. Fili loved him and he could never forget all about him because Kili slept in the room next to him, but it still worried him all the same.

"You know no one could ever replace you in my heart, Kee," Fili reassured him. "But I did make a few new friends."

Of course, he knew that. It was just nice to hear it again. "What are their names?" he asked. "What do they look like? Are they nice?"

"Well, if they weren't nice, I wouldn't be friends with them," Fili replied with a chuckle. "But let's see, they're all taller than me," he said with mock exasperation. Kili grinned at that, knowing Fili was a little annoyed at his lack of a substantial growth spurt, especially since Kili himself had shot up a couple of inches over the summer and was now slightly taller than him. "Aragorn has dark hair and grey eyes, and Eomer and Eowyn, who are twins, are both blonde with blue eyes."

"Like you?" Kili asked, trying to picture Fili's friends in his mind.

"Well, Eomer's blond is a bit darker than mine, while Eowyn's is a little paler. And their eyes are a little lighter than mine," Fili described.

"So not as nice as yours," Kili declared with a smirk.

Fili chuckled. "If you say so. I'm sure you're speaking as an unbiased party, after all. There's no reason for you to prefer my color over anyone else's."

"None whatsoever," he replied serenely. "Do you have homework?"

"Not for the first day," Fili answered.

"Then come on," Kili said, standing up and tugging him impatiently to his feet. "Let's go outside!"

Fili laughed but followed him anyway. Kili grinned back at him. No matter how different things were at school now that he had friends, he was glad that Fili was one constant in his life he knew wouldn't change.

Tbc…

Kinda short, but I hope you enjoyed Kili's first day at his new school. We'll learn more about Kili and Fili's new friends as the story progresses, I promise.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Tauriel was amazing, Kili decided.

He had been leery of her, at first, despite her initial offer of friendship. He hadn't been able to shake the look of disdain she had given him in the grocery store. That hadn't lasted long, though, because as soon as Tauriel realized he didn't trust her friendship, she had pulled him aside one morning to ask him why.

Kili had shrugged. "You didn't really seem to want to be my friend when we first met."

"That was before you stood up to the class bullies for a boy you had just met," she had explained.

"Why would you care?" he had asked in confusion. "You never cared that they picked up Faramir before."

"Just because I didn't do anything doesn't mean I didn't care!" was her heated response. "Them picking on Faramir meant they weren't picking on Legolas though," she had admitted in a smaller voice.

He hadn't been able to argue against that. Kili could understand her protecting her brother. He didn't think he would do the same thing in the same situation, but maybe it was different when you and your brother were in the same grade. If a kid were picking on Frodo, Kili was fairly certain that he and Fili would be able to scare the kid into leave their little brother alone without having to redirect him to a different target. And he couldn't even imagine someone picking on Fili, let alone how he would react to it.

Since their talk, he had decided to wholehearted embrace friendship with both Tauriel and Legolas, the same as he had with Faramir and Gimli. And, to the somewhat chagrin of Legolas, Faramir, and Gimli, he and Tauriel got on like a house on fire.

Tauriel, with Kili's infectious personality as an influence, was every bit as curious as he was. The difference, he was quick to realize, was that the redhead was truly fearless. Where Kili might be hesitant to ask certain questions to certain people, Tauriel had no such restraint. And when Kili might decide against an experiment thinking it was too risky, Tauriel dived right in.

Which meant, of course, that Kili dove right in after her.

Faramir, Legolas, and Gimli usually shuffled along after them, joining in on their tamer exploits, attempting to do damage control when things got somewhat out of hand.

Luckily, there weren't many opportunities for too many dangerous stunts, though Tauriel and Kili still found ways to push things.

Faramir had gotten particularly nervous when they decided to see if they could get someone to swing over the bar of the swing set. Kili had managed to push Tauriel so high that the chain was nearly perpendicular to the ground before Gimli, taking a look at Faramir's antsy face, put his foot down and made them stop.

Both Faramir and Legolas had shot Gimli a grateful look when Kili and Tauriel immediately stopped upon noticing their friends' discomfort.

For some reason, though, Fili didn't seem to like Tauriel, which Kili thought was supremely unfair of him because he had never even _met_ her.

"You should've seen it, Fili!" Kili gushed, recounting the swinging experiment they had tried. "Tauriel got so far off the ground! She looked like she was flying! It was awesome!"

"Mmhm," he replied absentmindedly, not even looking at Kili and focusing instead on the apple he was munching on.

"And Tauriel had this great idea about how to figure out how hot air balloons work!" he went on.

"I bet Tauriel is just a fountain of good ideas," Fili said sardonically.

Kili frowned in annoyance. "What's wrong with you?"

"Maybe I'm tired of hearing how wonderful Tauriel is," he snapped, shooting Kili an irritated look.

"What's wrong with Tauriel?" he asked, offended on his friend's behalf and a little hurt at Fili's harsh words.

"She's reckless!" Fili exclaimed. "And she makes you reckless too! One or both of you are going to get hurt one of these days."

"We're not going to get hurt," Kili retorted with a roll of his eyes. "We're careful."

"Kili, you just told me that you both thought it was a good idea to see if you could swing Tauriel all the way around the swing set. What part of that sounds careful?" Fili asked incredulously.

"It was fun! No one got hurt!" he replied with humph.

"It's always fun until someone gets hurt!"

"Why do you have to try and be so grown up?" Kili asked in exasperation. "You're only a year older than me. It's not like you know so much, you know."

Fili sighed in defeat. "I just worry about you, Kili. I'd be really sad if something happened to you."

Kili's annoyance at the other boy drained out of him. He closed the distance between them on the couch and threw his arms around Fili in an awkward hug and buried his face in the side of his neck. "Nothing's going to happen to me."

"It better not," Fili said grumpily.

"Kili!" Bilbo called from the kitchen before he could ask Fili why he was still so moody. He reluctantly let go of the blond and made his way to the kitchen.

"Yes, Dad?"

Bilbo smiled at him as he put a casserole dish in the oven. "I just got off the phone with Mr. Bofur," he informed. "Ori would like you to come spend the weekend with him. Seems like he's been missing you since you don't come to the bakery after school anymore."

"Okay!" he said cheerily. He frowned, though, as he realized something. "Just me? Not Fili too?"

"The invitation was just for you," his dad said carefully while setting the oven timer.

Kili scrunched up his face in confusion. "I thought Ori liked Fili?"

"Of course he does!" Bilbo assured him, turning around to face him. "But I think he sometimes misses when it was just you and him. You and Fili do tend to get caught up in each other, you know?"

He nodded slowly. That was true. He stuck close to Fili whenever they were with each other, but they both tried their best not to exclude others! They had tried to include Ori as much as possible when Bilbo and Kili were still living above the bakery, and though he was still little, they tried to include Frodo as much as possible as well. Kili didn't want to be a bad friend or brother by favoring Fili all the time. And if Ori wanted to spend some time with him without Fili, well, he could do that. It was just…

"The _entire_ weekend?" he asked morosely.

"You've gone longer without seeing Fili," his dad said with a roll of his eyes, turning his attention to chopping vegetables for a salad.

"Not out of choice," he pointed out with a pout.

"Kili," Bilbo said gently, bending down slightly to look him in the eye. "You don't have to go if you don't want to. But you see Fili all the time and he's not going anywhere. If you want to keep Ori's friendship, you're going to have to put effort into it now. After all, you don't go to the same school and you don't see him at the bakery anymore."

"I _do_ want to be Ori's friend," Kili insisted. And he did miss spending time with the younger boy. "I guess a weekend there could be fun."

"That's the spirit," his dad approved.

Fili didn't think it was a bad idea either.

"You'll have fun with Ori," he said with a smile. "Fun that won't run the risk of bodily injury."

Kili scowled at that, knowing it was a further dig at Tauriel. He thought that Fili would lay off after they talked earlier. Apparently he was wrong. Maybe after a weekend at Ori's, Fili wouldn't annoy him as much about his new friends.

He tried to not let his annoyance with Fili spoil his time with Ori. He plastered on a grin and listened to the younger boy attentively as he told him about his new teacher and how the older kids in his class had finally stopped treating him like a little kid, which was an improvement over previous years.

"So what's got you so moody?" Ori asked finally, giving him a knowing look.

"I'm not moody," Kili protested.

"Yes, you are," he said matter-of-factly. "You'd never let me go on and on about the idiots at my school without interrupting to tell me how stupid they all are. So what's up?"

He sighed and shrugged. "Fili and I had a little bit of a disagreement."

"You and Fili are fighting?!" Ori cried in shock.

"We are _not_ fighting," Kili insisted. He thought about it for a moment before he gasped. "No! Fili and I are fighting! We never fight! I can't be in a fight with Fili!" he said in a panicked voice. "What do I do?!"

Ori looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well," he said slowly. "Are you upset at Fili?"

Kili opened his mouth to immediately reply "no," but then he thought about the question. Was he mad at Fili? Well, he was definitely annoyed at him for being so unfair to Tauriel. "I guess…"

"Well, why?"

"He doesn't like Tauriel," Kili said with a scowl. "And he hasn't even _met_ her! She's my friend. He's the one who always wanted me to make more friends at school! You'd think he be happy that I did!"

"Why doesn't he like her?" Ori asked. "How does he even know enough about her to dislike her?"

"I've told him all about her," he answered. "And he thinks she's 'reckless.' But we're always careful to not get hurt!" he defended. "I mean, yeah, sometimes it's only because Gimli is telling us off, but still."

Ori frowned. "Do you talk about Tauriel a lot?"

"Well, yeah," Kili admitted. "But she's my friend and I spend a lot of time at school with her and the others so of course I do!"

"But do you talk about her more than your other friends?"

Kili bit his lip as he considered that. Yeah, he talked about all his friends, but maybe he did talk about Tauriel more, simply because she was his usual partner in crime at school, with the other three following their lead.

"Maybe…"

Ori rolled his eyes and flopped down on the bed next to Kili. "He's probably just jealous then," he stated. "He's probably is really worried, too, but he's definitely jealous."

"Jealous?" Kili said incredulously. "Why would he be jealous?"

"Well how would you feel if he started talking about how great some girl was all the time?"

"That's different," he insisted. He didn't like that scenario at all. "And I wouldn't be _jealous_. I'd just be worried that he had found someone that he was going to start spending time with and forget about me. That's not _jealous_."

"That is exactly jealous," Ori laughed.

Kili scowled again. "Fine, I _might_ be jealous if that happened, but it's still different. Why would _Fili_ be jealous of Tauriel? It's not like I like her more than him. I don't like _anyone_ more than Fili. And I wouldn't start spending more time with her and forget about him. That's ridiculous. I'd rather spend time with Fili than I would with _anyone_."

"Well _I _know that, and _you_ know that, but does _Fili_?" Ori asked with a small smile.

Kili wasn't listening though. He was going over his previous words and he winced as he realized how he sounded. "I didn't mean it like it sounded," he told Ori seriously. "It sounded like I didn't want to spend time with you and I do, I promise!"

The younger boy just laughed again. "I know that, Kili. But anyone who knows you at all knows how important Fili is to you. The question is, does Fili?"

Kili didn't have an answer for that, and the question haunted him all weekend. He pushed it out of his mind as much as possible in order to not spoil Ori's fun, but it niggled in the back of his mind regardless.

As soon as he was home, he darted up to Fili's room, not even bothering to knock, and leaped onto the bed where Fili was reading to wrap him in a tight hug.

"Wha—Kili!" Fili cried in surprise, automatically returning the hug.

"I missed you," he mumbled into Fili's shirt. "And I'm sorry."

"I missed you, too," the bewildered blond replied. "But what are you sorry for?"

"For talking about Tauriel so much and for being so reckless with her," he said, looking at him with earnest eyes. "I promise to be more careful. But Fili, you have to know that you're my favorite person, right? I love you more than I love anyone else."

"I love you, too, Kee," Fili murmured with a soft smile as he rearranged them so they could cuddle properly. "You're my favorite, too, you know?"

"I know," he said with a grin. And he did. He no longer had any doubt about his place in Fili's life.

"Cocky little runt, aren't you?" Fili teased.

"Not a runt," he shot back. "Taller than you are!"

"Why you little…"

Kili squealed and twisted away as Fili's fingers found his side to tickle him. "Sorry!" he cried among a peal of laughter. "Mercy! Please!"

"That's what I thought," Fili said smugly, tucking Kili against his side once more.

He pouted playfully but wasn't able to hold it for too long before smiling in contentment. "It's always going to be you and me, Fili," he said sleepily, not knowing if he was telling or asking.

It didn't matter, though, because Fili answered anyway. "Of course it will, Kee," he promised. "Nothing and no one will ever stop me loving you."

Kili smiled as his lids slid shut and sleep crept over him. "Love you best."

Tbc…


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Fifth grade flew by in a blur for Kili, which he was somewhat sad about because it had been the most enjoyable year he had ever had in school. Granted, most of that was due to the fact that he finally had friends, but the material they had learned had been fun as well.

It was the last month of school, and their homeroom teacher had told them that next Monday they would have a job-shadowing day, with a report to be turned in the following Friday. Kili was practically vibrating with excitement because he knew _exactly_ who he wanted to ask.

"What's got you bouncing like a puppy?" Tauriel asked with a sly smile.

Faramir nudged her arm with a grin. "He's always bouncing like a puppy. That's just his personality."

He scowled at both of them as they laughed at him. Legolas and Gimli turned back at the noise from where they were walking a little ahead of them. They just shook their heads as they realized the two redheads were just teasing Kili, a common enough occurrence, and turned back to their own conversation.

"You both are mean to me," he said with a pout, though he was secretly pleased to see Faramir initiating the teasing. It had taken the other boy a while to come out of his shell, and even now he seemed like he couldn't believe his luck to actually have friends. Kili could relate, but he himself had slowly gotten over a lot of his self-worth issues, in large part due to the fact that none of his family or friends ever hesitated to tell him how much worth he had.

He didn't think Faramir had that kind of support. He didn't know much about Faramir's family, which was odd now that he thought about it. He knew all about Tauriel and Legolas's family, mostly because Tauriel had been quick to tell him very matter-of-factly that Legolas was _not_ her brother and that Thranduil, though he had been very kind to her, was _not_ her father. Apparently Thranduil had been her mom's boss and had taken her in after her mom had died. Legolas's mom had died later on as well, cancer Legolas had told him sadly, so it was just the three of them.

Of course, maybe it wasn't so common to just tell your family history to your friends. Kili knew he hadn't really outright told any of them about his family. Gimli hadn't either. There were things you just picked up, though, from just talking. Like he knew Gimli was an only child with a dentist for a dad and a real estate agent for a mom, both of which Gimli jokingly complained were a little _too_ affectionate at times.

And he was sure they all knew that his dad was a baker and that his pop was a detective and he had two brothers. He was actually fairly certain that they all knew a little _too_ much about Fili, as he tended to talk about his big brother all the time.

But he knew relatively little about Faramir's home life. He knew that he had an older brother named Boromir in high school, and he _thought_ Faramir may have mentioned his father once or twice, but that was the extent of his knowledge.

He was bursting to ask Faramir, but he thought it might be one of those situations people didn't like to talk about. Like how he didn't like to talk about his first parents.

"So why are you so excited?" Faramir asked with a smile, breaking through his thoughts.

Kili grinned back at him. "The job-shadowing thing. I'm gonna ask Pop if I can shadow him!"

"He's a detective, right? Isn't that a little dangerous?" Faramir said pensively. "You think he'll go for it?"

He shrugged, unconcerned. "Doesn't hurt to ask. And if he says no, then I can just hang out in the bakery with Dad instead, taste testing frosting and cookies."

"It's supposed to be a job we'd be interested in pursuing as a career later on," Tauriel stated disapprovingly.

"I could be a detective!" Kili cried in protest. "Or a baker!"

She rolled her eyes. "You'd be bored as a baker. And Fili'd never let you become something as dangerous as a cop."

He opened his mouth to protest, but he really didn't have any good counters to her arguments. For one, she was probably right about him being bored as a baker. Baking was fun, but he liked figuring out things. There wasn't much opportunity for that in baking, he thought. And while Thorin's job was all about figuring things out, Fili would probably be upset with him going into something so dangerous. Not that he always did what Fili wanted, but he didn't want something as silly as a job messing with their relationship. Still…

"Fili isn't the boss of me," he said petulantly.

"No, but you wouldn't want to disappoint him," Faramir answered instead of Tauriel.

He couldn't argue with that. It still didn't stop him later that day at dinner, though, from asking Thorin about the job-shadowing.

His pop looked at him thoughtfully for a moment before shooting Bilbo a look. His dad didn't looked thrilled at the prospect at all. Frodo dug into his chicken with no mind to the conversation around him, and Kili didn't dare look at Fili's face.

"I've got a better idea," Thorin said at last, giving Kili a smile. "There's a forensics guy that I work with a lot that would probably be happy to let you shadow him in the lab."

"A lab?" Kili asked, eyes sparkling with glee. "Like a real lab?"

His pop glanced at his dad, who nodded with a smile. "Yeah, a forensics lab," he said. "I think you'd enjoy that more than following me around, especially since there's a good chance I'll just be doing boring paperwork. Would you like me to ask him?"

"Yes!" he cried in excitement. "Thank you!"

If he thought he was going to escape a talk with Fili, though, he was out of luck. Not that he really ever wanted to get out of talking with Fili, but he could do without a lecture about how dangerous being a detective was.

He was in for a surprise, though, as Fili just sighed as he followed him up to his room and plop down beside him on the floor. "Do you really want to be a detective?" he asked after a while of just sitting there, halfhearted looking through Kili's books.

He just shrugged. "It'd be fun figuring out crimes," he admitted. "But the forensics thing Pop was talking about sounds pretty cool, too. Maybe even cooler. I thought you didn't want me doing something dangerous?"

"Yeah, but I don't want you to not do what you want because of _me_," Fili said emphatically. "I just want you to be happy, Kee."

Kili grinned and leaned into Fili's side. "I think I could be happy flipping burgers as long as I still had you."

"You'll always have me. And you'd never have to do something as boring as flipping burgers for money" he said with a roll of his eyes. "You could just mooch off of me instead and do fun things that made no money."

"Then you'd have to make enough money for that," Kili replied with a laugh. "Unless you got a trust fund tucked away like Pop does." Fili was quiet. "You do, don't you!" he accused, shoving him playfully. "Jerk! You never told me!"

Fili shrugged. "I can't touch it until I'm eighteen so it's not that important."

"It matters that I'm gonna have to help you fight off all the gold diggers that are gonna try and take advantage of you," he pointed out with a sly grin.

"So glad I have you to defend my honor," he said sarcastically.

"I'll be your knight in shining armor!" Kili declared cheekily.

"More like a nerd in tinfoil," Fili teased.

Kili snorted before looking at him thoughtfully. "So if you don't need money, what do _you_ want to do when you grow up?"

"Well… that's kinda the reason I can't really be upset if you want to be a detective like Pop…" he said reluctantly.

"Do _you_ want to be a detective like Pop?" he asked with a frown, not liking the sound of that at all, despite knowing it was hypocritical of him.

"No," Fili replied. "I was thinking maybe a firefighter."

Kili's frown deepened at that. Firefighter wasn't any better than a police officer. In some ways, it might even be worse. "Why?"

"I don't know," he answered. "It's just… you know how Frodo and I used to talk about his parents?" At Kili's nod, he continued, "Well, his parents died in a fire, and he was there and he talked about how scared he was and how the firemen saved him and I just, I don't know, want to be able to save people like Frodo."

"You could get hurt, though," Kili said in a small voice.

"I would be careful," Fili assured, throwing an arm around Kili's shoulders and pulling him close. "And I might do something completely different. It's just an idea that kinda stuck with me."

Kili couldn't say that he particularly liked the idea, but it wouldn't be fair for him to be upset about it when Fili had just said he wouldn't be mad if _Kili_ chose a dangerous job. Though Kili didn't quite think it was fair that Fili had waited to say this until _after_ Thorin had piqued his interest in the much safer field of forensics.

"No use worrying about it down," he said finally with a sigh. "That's years and years away."

Fili chuckled. "You're right. We have plenty of time to figure everything out."

Kili was fairly certain he got on pretty much everyone's nerves over the next few days as he waited impatiently for Job-Shadowing Day to get there already. He couldn't help it though! He was just so excited! His excitement doubled when his pop told him Dr. Radagast had actually agreed for him to shadow him in the lab.

He woke up before the sun Monday morning and rushed to brush his teeth and throw his clothes on. He was downstairs munching on a bowl of cereal before Bilbo even left for the bakery.

His dad just chuckled as he caught sight of him before he left. "Someone is getting a jump on the day," he remarked.

"I'm going to work with Pop today, Dad!" Kili reminded him with a grin.

"I don't think any of us could have forgotten that if we tried," Bilbo said with a cheeky wink. "Behave today, but have fun!"

"Promise!" he said as he waved his dad out the door.

It took _forever_ for Thorin to come down. And then it took _forever_ for him to drink a cup of coffee. And _then_ he had to fix a travel mug of coffee. Really, how much coffee did one adult need?

Of course, he forgot to take into account that his pop always took Frodo to school before he went to work. And of course, that took _forever_ too.

They _finally_ pulled into the precinct and Kili was bouncing with impatience as Thorin led him down to the lab.

The man who met them there was probably the oddest looking man Kili had ever seen. His brown and grey hair was pulled into a messy bun on the very top of his head. He had two pairs of glasses perched on his large, hooked nose, and he was muttering to himself as he read over a sheet of paper that he held close to his face.

Kili liked him immediately.

"Kili, this is Dr. Radagast," Thorin introduced before turning to the scientist with a raised brow. "And Rob, really? You need to get bifocals."

Radagast waved him off. "I can see perfectly fine with these," he said, gesturing towards the two sets of glasses on his face. "Now, off you go so I can corrupt your son with ideas about science."

Kili grinned at that and Thorin just shook his head.

"I'll come get you for lunch, okay?" he told Kili before he left.

Kili turned to Radagast with his notebook and pencil in hand, ready to take notes and learn everything he could.

The strange older man clapped his hands together gleefully. "Alright, so how about we solve a murder?"

Though he was sure the scientist kept the more gruesome pieces of evidence away from him, Kili was fascinated by everything Radagast showed him. First he showed him a machine called a mass spectrometer, which, from what Kili could understand, spun really fast and separated different materials from each other so that you could identify what things were. Then he showed him how he pulled fingerprints from objects like cups and things found at the scene. He then scanned the prints into a computer. They were still waiting for the database to finish running the prints when Thorin came to get him for lunch.

"Pop! Dr. Radagast has the coolest job ever!" Kili gushed over his hamburger.

Thorin chuckled at his enthusiasm. "I thought you might like it."

He scrunched up his face in confusion after a moment of thought. "Pop?" he asked. "If Dr. Radagast is the one who figures out all the evidence and stuff, what do _you_ do?"

"I should be offended at that," he laughed. "But forensics does play a large role in police work. But detectives are the ones who find the guy all the evidence points to. It's not easy sometimes. Sometimes the evidence points to someone and we don't know who that someone is because none of his information is in the system." Kili nodded thoughtfully as he finished his soda. "Now, ready to get back to work?"

"Yeah!"

The rest of the day past quickly for Kili, and when his pop came to collect him at the end of the day, he really didn't want to go.

"I think it's safe to say Kili found his calling today," Thorin told his dad over dinner.

Kili bobbed his head enthusiastically. "It was _so cool_, Dad!"

"You wouldn't mind be stuck in a lab all day?" Fili asked next to him, nose scrunched up as if that were the worst thing he could think of.

"Why would I mind being in a lab all day?" he asked in bewilderment, causing his parents to laugh.

Fili shook his head. "I guess _you_ wouldn't."

"Nope," he chirped, spearing a carrot and popping it happily in his mouth.

"What's a lab?" Frodo asked, blue eyes looking at them in confusion.

"It's a place where smart people like Kili work," Fili answered primly, blue eyes shooting Kili a mischievous look.

Kili dunked his head in embarrassment but smiled anyway.

"Well, if Kili spends his entire life in a lab and not being shot at, I, for one, will be happy," Bilbo declared, giving Thorin a meaningful look.

"I am very rarely shot at," the detective pointed out, uselessly as far as Kili was concerned because he still remembered the incident a few months ago when Thorin _was_ shot at one night and Bilbo had cried and he, Fili, and Frodo all huddled together in Fili's room. "But this is about Kili, and not me."

Bilbo sighed before standing to clear the table. "You're right. I'm sorry."

Kili caught Fili's eyes and they both beat a hasty retreat to the safety of Fili's room, both of them knowing that the night would probably end in Bilbo crying and neither of them wanted to see that again.

"I should've thought more before asking to go with Pop to work," Kili said once they were settled in Fili's room, absently pushing around Fili's remote control truck. "I should've known it would have made Dad remember that night."

"I think Dad remembers that night a lot anyway," Fili replied, flopping down on his bed. "It wasn't a very good night."

"I try not to remember it," he said with a shrug. He was pretty good at blocking out unpleasant memories.

Frodo ran into the room and jumped on the bed before the conversation got any sadder. The five-year-old managed to distract the older two from any morose thoughts, and they all played happily together until it was Frodo's bedtime.

"Can I sleep with you tonight?" Kili asked Fili after he had had a shower and changed into his pajamas. He didn't want to be alone that night. He was afraid the bad memories would haunt him.

"Yeah," Fili murmured, pulling down his blankets and letting Kili slip in with him.

They curled up together and were soon fast asleep, barely noticing when Thorin checked in on them and left with a quiet smile.

Tbc…

I like this chapter a lot more than the last couple I've posted so I hope you all enjoyed it as well! And I'm not sure what Fili's eventual career is going to be so I am open to suggestions as long as they fit with the trajectory I plan for his character.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Summer came and went quickly, though it hadn't exactly went the way Kili had thought it would.

For one, he hadn't realized that he wouldn't get to see a lot of his friends from school over break.

To be fair, it wasn't as if they didn't talk to each other. It was just… difficult… for some reason for them to all get together.

Tauriel and Legolas were understandable. Thranduil and Thorin were still rather cool towards each other, and tended to avoid each other if possible. The blond had brought his two children to Kili's birthday party during the school year, but they had barely stayed for cake and presents before leaving. It really wasn't surprising that few invitations passed between their parents that summer.

Bilbo wasn't exactly happy that Thorin was letting his "teenage grudges" (as he called them) interfere with Kili's friendships, but Kili assured his dad that it was okay. It wasn't as if Legolas and Tauriel had much free time that summer anyway.

Thranduil had them booked for numerous lessons over the summer, from tennis to archery to Latin. Legolas took them all extremely seriously, as he did most things. Tauriel, though, only tolerated them from what Kili had gathered from their occasional phone conversation. She may have had the same innate curiosity as Kili, but she didn't have the same overall love of learning he did.

Then again, if he had to waste his summer in lessons, he'd probably be annoyed too.

Gimli also was around much. They saw each other a couple of times over the summer, with his parents and Kili's hitting it off right away apparently, but he spent most of his summer at camp.

Faramir he didn't hear from at all, which made a knot of worry twist in his gut.

"I'm sure he's fine," Fili told him the night before school began again, after Kili had told him that he was concerned.

"How do you know?" Kili whispered back, snuggling close to the blond despite the heat still lingering in the September night. They were supposed to be asleep already, but Kili had crept into Fili's room after Bilbo had ordered them both to bed, unable to sleep, a combination of worry, nerves, and excitement coursing through him.

"I don't," he admitted quietly. "But you'll see him tomorrow so there's no use worrying about it."

Kili chewed the inside of his lip for a moment before sighing. "You're right, but I can't help it."

"Just think about something else then," Fili suggested, wrapping his arms around him and pulling him closer. "We're finally going to be at the same school."

Kili shot him a small smile at that. "Yeah," he said shyly. "You're not gonna pretend like you don't know your dorky kid brother, right?"

"Don't be stupid," he scoffed. "Why would I do that?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "You've got all your friends and you'll be a seventh grader and I'm sure it's not cool to be seen hanging around a sixth grader."

"First of all, I don't care about being cool," Fili said seriously, propping himself up on his elbow to look at Kili properly. "Second of all, you've met all of my friends and they know how close we are so I doubt any of them would have a problem with you."

That was true, Kili had to admit. Fili's friends were kind of awesome. They had been around this summer much more than Kili's own friends had been.

He had liked Eomer and Eowyn immediately. There was a certain wildness about the two that Kili felt an instant connection to. They had taken to him quickly as well, easily accepting the package deal that he and Fili were, probably because, as twins, they understood it better than most.

Aragorn he had a harder time figuring out. At first, he had thought the dark-haired boy didn't like him. Not wanting to make problems for Fili with his friend, he had tried to keep out of their way when Aragorn was over. Of course, that hadn't worked because he found it nearly impossible to stay away from Fili, so when his brother would invite him along, as he inevitably did, he was incapable of saying no.

The more time he spend with Aragorn, though, the more he realized the boy was similar to Fili in some ways. Like Fili, he was reserved around people he didn't know very well. However, once you got to know him, he proved to be warm and caring, with a rather wicked sense of humor. Kili still wasn't sure if the older boy actually liked him or not, but he was friendly enough for Fili's sake, which was good enough.

"I still don't expect you to give me too much attention at school," Kili muttered ruefully. "I mean, you have your friends, and I have mine…"

"And we're all going to hang out before school and during break together, and we're all going to take over a table at lunch together, and we're all going to walk home after school together," Fili said before uncertainty colored his voice. "Unless… you'd rather _not_… I mean, I know you have your own friends…"

Kili rolled his eyes. "Why wouldn't I want to? But do you really think our friends will be okay with being smooshed together like that?"

Fili shrugged, lying back down on the bed. "Doesn't matter. They can stay as separate as they want. If they want to draw a line down the middle of the lunch table with us in middle, I don't really care. Though, I really don't think Aragorn and the twins would do that. They like you and will at least be nice to your friends."

"If you say so…"

"I do say so," he said with finality. "And now that that is settled, let's go to sleep. Big day tomorrow."

Kili didn't think he'd be able to sleep, but curled up in Fili's arms with Fili's fingers carding through his hair, he felt himself slowly drift off.

He was still wrapped around Fili when Thorin knocked loudly on the door and hollered at them both to get up and get dressed. Kili grumbled and burrowed deeper into the blankets, deciding that school was stupid and all he wanted to do was sleep forever. Unfortunately, Fili didn't seem to share his sentiments.

The blond rolled out of bed immediately and shot to the bathroom. Kili huffed before curling around Fili's still warm pillow. If his brother wanted the bathroom first, that was perfectly fine by him. It only meant he could stay in bed a few extra minutes.

He had almost fallen back to sleep when Fili yanked the covers off of him, grinning down at him already dressed and ready to go.

"Get up, lazybones! Don't want to be late!"

Kili glared up the blond. If there was one thing about Fili that he did not particularly like, it was his ability to be way too cheerful in the morning. After stubbornly burying his face in the pillows for a moment longer, he crawled out of bed and trudged to the bathroom in a sleepy daze.

He was slightly more awake when he exited the bathroom into his own room, quickly pulling out a pair of jeans and tshirt and changing, running a brush through his hair after he was dressed. His hair was getting long, but he wanted to keep it that way. His goal was to have it get as long as Thorin's, though he knew he had a long way to go with that. It wasn't going to be as nice as his pop's, though. His hair lacked the thickness and curl that Thorin's had.

Fili would probably look really good with long hair, he thought absently.

"Kili!" Thorin called, breaking him out of his thoughts. "Get down here or you won't get any breakfast!"

Not wanting to miss out on food, he quickly darted downstairs, grinning as spotted Frodo walking into the kitchen right in front of him.

Sneaking up behind his little brother, he scooped the smaller boy up in his arms with a shout. "Got you!"

"Kili!" Frodo squealed, trying to squirm out of his arms. "Let me go!"

"What's the magic word?" he teased, hoisting him even higher.

"Now!" he cried petulantly but with a smile on his face.

"Boys," Thorin said, a hint of warning in his voice. Kili smiled at him sheepishly as he put Frodo down and plopped down at the table next to Fili, who just shook his head at his brothers' antics.

Fili and Kili both scarfed down their breakfast quickly, eager to get to their first day of school. Thorin's warning glare was the only thing that kept them from running out the door after they had finished.

Fili turned his head and grinned at him as they hit the sidewalk and turned in the direction of the middle school. A burst of happiness spread through Kili.

His good mood continued all the way to the school until it stuttered slightly as he saw a familiar redhead walking in front of them.

"Faramir!" he called, grabbing Fili's hand and dragging him forward in a run in order to catch his friend.

The other sixth grader turned carefully and gave the brothers a small smile. "Hello, Kili, Fili," he greeted softly.

Kili frowned at him, taking in his pale face and his sunken eyes. That knot of worry that had been in his stomach all summer was back. "Are you okay?"

He felt Fili's hand tighten around his own, but before any of them could say anything else, they heard voices calling them from behind.

"Fili! Kili!" Eomer and Eowyn both cried, reaching them and immediately throwing their arms around the brothers, both somehow managing to get an arm around each of them simultaneously and Kili didn't know how that was even possible.

"Faramir!" Eowyn exclaimed happily, having pulled away and spotted the redhead with them. "I didn't realize you were starting middle school too!" She wrapped her arms around the smaller boy's shoulders enthusiastically.

She missed the pained wince Faramir gave at the embrace, but none of the others did.

Eomer scowled at the younger boy. "You told me it had stopped," he accused.

Faramir shrugged and looked down. "It did for a little while."

Kili looked between the two of them, knowing he was missing something important. Eowyn had moved to stand at Faramir's side and took his hand comfortingly, looking more nervous than he had ever seen her. Fili had stiffened completely at his side, hand almost painfully tight around Kili's own. Eomer, though, looked _furious_.

"Do you three know each other?" Kili asked finally, figuring that was a safe enough question in the tense atmosphere.

"Our families have always been friends," Eowyn explained with a grateful look at him, obviously glad to talk about something and lessen the tension. "Faramir's brother has been dating our brother Theodred for years and Faramir usually tags along when he comes over."

"Because that makes me sound pathetic," Faramir quipped with a roll of his eyes. Kili was glad that whatever was going on didn't drive his friend back into his shell. They had all spent all of last year dragging him out as much as they could to see it be reversed over the summer. "And I'm _fine_."

Eomer glared at the younger boy a moment before stalking away. Kili felt more than saw Fili send Eowyn a questioning look, but she just shook her head.

"Kili!" Tauriel's excited voice broke through his thoughts as she came to a stop in front of them. "Faramir!"

Legolas followed her at a more sedate pace, giving both Kili and Faramir nods of hello.

"Tauriel, Legolas!" Kili greeted with a grin. "This is Eowyn, and you both know Fili."

Tauriel's eyes lit up as she greeted Eowyn, who was giving her a bright smile. Kili figured that they were probably both happy to have another girl in their friend group.

"Have you seen Gimli yet?" Legolas asked after giving Eowyn a polite smile.

"No, I—"

"Legolas!" the booming voice of Gimli interrupted him as he wrapped both arms around the thin blond from behind and lifted him in a boisterous greeting. Eowyn laughed aloud at the sight while Tauriel shook her head in amusement.

Kili shot a look at Faramir, who was resolutely keeping a smile on his face even though his eyes held more than a little hurt. Kili wondered how much of that had to do with Eomer's anger and how much was because of whatever had happened over the summer.

He was so lost in his thoughts about Faramir that he almost missed Aragorn joining them briefly before leaving to go hunt Eomer down. He hoped the older boy would tell Eomer off for being so mean to Faramir. Whatever Faramir was going through, he didn't need Eomer's anger on top of it.

Fili gave his hand a final squeeze as the bell rung before he let go. Kili, in all honesty, had forgotten that he had been holding his brother's hand the entire time. He looked at Fili in askance as they both headed to their homerooms. The blond shot him the fiercely protective look that he usually only got when Kili told him about bullies at school or when Kili's first parents were brought up.

"It'll be okay," he murmured to Kili before turning down the hallway towards his own classroom at the other end of the school than Kili's.

Kili wasn't sure if that was true, but he wasn't really sure what was happening either. His stomach was twisted in something worse than worry for Faramir, but he didn't know _why_. He felt helpless and useless and so utterly _small_.

For the first time in years, he felt like he wanted to curl up in a ball in a closet again and hide from the world.

And he didn't like that feeling one bit.

Tbc…

I have a question for later on down the road when we get to the high school romance drama. Do we want any of Fili's POV? I think it would be a nice addition, but I don't want it to be disruptive of the flow I've been having with Kili's POV. There are some aspects of the story that won't be as obvious without Fili's POV, but they'll still be there regardless. I don't want the stylistic shift to turn anyone off though. Let me know what you all think!


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Kili was glad that teachers never taught anything important on the first day of school because he was unable to concentrate in any of his classes. He was grateful when lunch period rolled around and he was able to follow his classmates to the cafeteria.

He craned his neck over the crowds to look for Fili or any of his friends. None of his friends had been in his English class, and he had no idea how he was supposed to find anyone with so many people pressing around him.

The crowd was only exasperating his earlier desire to run away and hide. He felt a little shaky and clammy for some reason. He chalked it up to worry over Faramir and twisted his head left and right in order to catch a glimpse of any of his friends.

He bit his lip as a horrible thought struck him. What if he didn't have the same lunch period as any of them? What if he was stuck sitting alone in the cafeteria?

He felt sick all of a sudden and nearly bolted into the nearest bathroom before an arm was looped through his and Tauriel was grinning at him. He stared at her for a moment, wondering why she didn't seem as worried as he was, but then remembered that she hadn't been there to know that something was wrong with Faramir.

"Finally found one of you!" she cried in relief. "I had no idea there'd be so many students at this school!"

Kili gave her a weak smile. "Yeah, I was starting to worry about sitting alone in the cafeteria."

She frowned at him. "Everything alright?"

He didn't answer because he wasn't really sure. He just kept walking down the hallway. Something loosened in his chest when they ran into Fili and Eomer as they rounded the corner towards the cafeteria.

As long as Fili was around, everything would be alright because Fili always knew what to do.

They took their place in the lunch line with most of the other student, Kili being sure to stick between Fili and Tauriel. With them on either side of him, the crowd didn't seem so smothering. They spied Eowyn nearer the front of the line. She looked back at them and waved before grabbing a tray and turning towards the food selection.

"How were your first classes?" Fili asked him.

"Fine," he mumbled, scanning the room for any sign of Faramir.

"If he's not here by now, he must have the second lunch period," Fili informed him, grabbing a tray for himself as they reached the front and then handing one to Kili. "Don't worry. It looks like Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn will be with him."

Kili sighed as he took the tray and looked at the food available for lunch. His stomach lurched unpleasantly. "I'm not really that hungry," he said.

Fili, though, pretended he didn't hear him and grabbed two of everything, putting one on his own tray and one on Kili's. He rolled his eyes at the blond's antics but didn't say anything, only handed the lady at the end of the line his lunch money and followed Fili to where Eowyn and Eomer were already waiting.

Tauriel trailed after and frowned at them once she sat down. "Why do I feel like I missed something?"

"Faramir's father has been hurting him," Eowyn answered in an undertone. "We realized right before you showed up this morning."

Kili's head shot up and he looked at Eowyn in horror only for his attention to be drawn away by a derisive snort from Eomer. "Call it what it is," her twin spat bitterly. "He's been abusing him."

His blood ran cold.

It was stupid, he knew, to pretend as if he hadn't known all day what had happened to Faramir over the summer. He may not have known the particularities, but he had _known_ on some level. He had just been fooling himself into believing that wasn't possible.

Because it _shouldn't_ have been possible. Faramir didn't deserve that kind of treatment. Faramir was one of the nicest people Kili had ever met. He was kind and understanding and soft-spoken and smart and _never_ made _any_ kind of trouble. Kili had never even seen Faramir break one rule in school. Why would his father hit him?

"What has he told you before?" Fili asked seriously.

Eomer stabbed at his broccoli violently. "Not a lot," he replied sullenly. "I saw hand-shaped bruises around his arms one day and asked him if his father did it. He didn't deny it but begged me not to say anything because it wasn't going to happen again."

"And you believed him?" Tauriel asked incredulously.

He glared at her. "Of course not!" he growled. "But I believed Boromir when he told me a little later that he wouldn't _let_ it happen again. Their father always doted on Boromir so I figured that if he was going to step between them, nothing else _would_ happen."

"Faramir might not have let him get between them," Kili said quietly, staring down at his tray. If it were him, he wouldn't let Fili. He knew what happened when people got in the way.

"Well he should have," Eomer snapped angrily.

"You being mad at him isn't going to help anything!" Kili shot back, fed up with the older boy's attitude. "You're just gonna make him more scared and he'll never let anyone help him! It's not like it's his fault! Faramir doesn't deserve to be hurt and he doesn't deserve your anger!"

"I know!" Eomer exclaimed before sighing and continuing in a softer tone. "I know. I'm more angry at myself for not telling someone before."

"You told Boromir," Eowyn reminded gently.

"Fat lot of good that did."

They all sat in silence for a while, quietly eating their food and not knowing what to say. Well, everyone but Kili ate their food. He finally began picked up his pizza once Fili nudged him and gave him a significant look.

"How did you guess it was his dad hurting him?" Fili asked, breaking the silence at last.

"Denethor was always a little uncaring towards Faramir," Eomer explained. "Dad once said it was because his wife died when Faramir was born and it was hard for him to look at with being sad. I don't think he thought him capable of actually hurting him though."

"Not loving him probably hurt him more than hitting him did," Fili remarked, shooting Kili another look as he noticed him only holding his pizza and not eating it. Kili sighed before taking a bite that sat like ash on his tongue.

Eomer only shrugged helplessly. "Anyway, the only people he'd been around were Denethor and Boromir, and Boromir would rather cut off his own arm than hurt Faramir so…"

"What do we do?" Tauriel asked, voicing the question on everyone's mind. "What _can_ we do?"

"We can't do _nothing_," Eowyn insisted, looking outraged at the very thought.

Kili envisioned them all storming Faramir's home and confronting his father directly and had to stop himself from shuddering at the image. If he could hurt Faramir, he could probably hurt any one of them as well.

"We tell our parents," Fili said in a calming voice.

He felt a tiny flicker of hope at that. Dad and Pop would know what to do. They would help Faramir and would make sure that no one else was hurt by him. Pop was a police officer. He wouldn't let Faramir's dad hurt him or Bilbo or anyone else that tried to stop him from hurting Faramir.

"We have to be able to do something more than just run to our parents!" Eowyn protested.

"What if he doesn't want us to tell anyone?" Tauriel asked.

"I don't care what he wants!" Eomer hissed. "This is what he needs!"

Fili nodded. "I agree. As for what else we can do, all we can do is be there for him."

"What if he doesn't let us?" Tauriel said mournfully. "What if he's too upset at us for going behind his back and saying something?"

"Are we going behind his back?" Eowyn asked, brow furrowed. "Shouldn't we tell him that we're going to tell our parents?"

"No," Kili replied softly, speaking up at last. "It'd just make him act differently in front of his dad. That might make him angry."

She nodded thoughtfully. "Should we tell Aragorn and Gimli to tell their parents as well?"

Fili nodded. "The more people, the better, I think."

Kili really hoped that was true. He didn't want Faramir to get hurt because his father didn't like being ambushed by a mob of his friends' parents.

Kili was in two classes with Faramir after lunch, and in both the other boy tried his best to pretend as if nothing was wrong. For his benefit, Kili tried to do the same. It was hard, though, chatting about their science teacher's toupee when Kili was bursting at the seams to tell Faramir than none of this was his fault and that he didn't deserve any of it.

It was a relief, then, to leave the rest of their friends behind on the walk back to their house.

"You okay?" Fili asked him, bumping his shoulder lightly.

Kili nodded. "Do you think Pop and Dad will be able to help Faramir?"

"If anyone can, they can," he assured, throwing an arm around Kili's shoulders before frowning. "You're growing taller too fast. I know I was taller than you this summer."

He shot Fili a weak but grateful smile. He knew his brother was trying to take his mind off of Faramir. "Guess you're just doomed to be short," he quipped back. "You're practically a dwarf."

Fili rolled his eyes. "A half inch does not make you a giant, you know."

Kili just smiled and hummed at that and continued walking. The tension eased in his chest a little as he spied Thorin's car in the driveway. He really didn't want to put this conversation off.

Determinedly, he picked up his pace, grabbing Fili's hand and pulling him along with him. They burst into the house and slamming the door behind them, causing Frodo to jump on the couch in the living room, startled by their loud entrance.

"Fili! Kili!" Thorin cried, walking into the entrance hall and frowning at them sternly. "What have we told you about slamming the door?"

"We need to talk to you!" Kili said in a rush. "It's important."

Thorin looked from Kili to Fili before nodding and gesturing towards the kitchen. Kili looked over at Fili, suddenly anxious about the upcoming conversation. Fili gave his hand a reassuring squeeze as they both followed Thorin and took seats at the kitchen table across from him.

"Are you two alright?" Thorin asked before either of them could start.

Kili nodded. "We're fine, but…" He bit his lip as he trailed off, not really sure what to say now that their pop was in front of them listening.

Thankfully, Fili took over for him. "Our friend Faramir is being abused by his father," he said.

Thorin's face grew stony. "He told you this?" he asked in what Kili knew to be his detective voice.

"More or less," Kili answered with a shrug, looking down at his hands.

"Pop, he looked awful," Fili elaborated in agitation. "He was hurt and in pain. And he admitted that it happened before but that he thought it had stopped and it _hadn't_. You've got to help him!"

"I will, Fili. I promise," he stated seriously. "Did you tell anyone else?"

"We all decided to tell all our parents," he informed. "We didn't really know what else to do."

Thorin nodded. "You did the right thing. I'm proud of you. Both of you," he added, giving Kili a small smile.

"What's going to happen to Faramir?" Kili asked, worried that his friend was going to end up shipped off to a group home like he was after they took him from his first father.

"We're going to try our best to make sure he is taken in by someone who will love him and keep him safe," Thorin promised. "Faramir is a good kid. I'm sure there are plenty of people who know him who will make sure he is cared for, don't you worry, Kili."

He nodded, mind set at ease. Thorin was right. Faramir was great. Even if he did end up in a group home, his experience would be different than Kili's. It would take no time at all for him to find a foster family. Kili just hoped it was a family close by so that Faramir wouldn't have to change schools.

It was going to be okay, he told himself. Pop would take care of everything.

Tbc…

I've made a decision regarding POV. It's going to stay just Kili, though be sure to look for oneshots with varying POVs that are outtakes of this story!


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

Thorin told them that some of their friends' parents would be coming over after dinner to decide what they should do. He and Bilbo ushered their sons upstairs, telling them to let them handle things.

Naturally, Fili and Kili waited until Frodo was ensconced in his room before sneaking out to listen at the top of the stairs.

What Kili didn't expect, though, was for Thranduil to be the first to arrive.

"Thank you for coming," Thorin said civilly as he opened the door and led the blond into the living room.

"I am not one to sit idly by when a child is being hurt," they heard his voice reply as they both disappeared from sight.

Kili leant as far as he could over the bannister in an attempt to see into the living room, but Fili quickly jerked him back. He shot his brother a scowl as he listened to the conversation between their pop and Legolas's dad. It was weird how… not hostile they sounded.

Before anything interesting could be said, though, the doorbell rang again and Bilbo let in two men that Kili didn't recognize, but who Fili informed him in a whisper were Elrond, Aragorn's stepdad, and Theoden, Eomer and Eowyn's dad. Conversation didn't turn serious, though, until Gimli's dad arrived.

"Is there a reason you can't just go over there and arrest the bastard?" Gloin asked, obviously speaking to Thorin.

Kili was wondering that himself. Why bother talking things over when Faramir could be being hurt _right now_?

"I think that should be a last resort," Thorin answered. "You can never be certain if charges will stick and, even if they do, then Faramir would be taken in by the system, which I think we all want to avoid."

The doorbell rang again before anything else could be said. Bilbo hurried to the door and opened it to reveal two teenagers, one of which Kili recognized as Faramir's brother Boromir.

"Can I help you?" Bilbo asked in confusion.

"Theodred!" Kili heard Theoden call in surprise before seeing the other man walk into the entrance hall. "What are you two doing here? How did you even know to come here?"

"Eomer called me," the teen who must have been Theodred answered. They both stepped inside as Bilbo shut the door behind them. "Boromir has been staying with me for the last two months. We've been trying to figure out how to get Faramir away from Denethor."

"Well, why don't we all sit down in the living room with everyone and hear the whole story," Bilbo suggested. Before he followed them, he shot a look straight at Fili and Kili, raising an eyebrow. Kili was sure he was going to scold them and send them to bed, but he said nothing and went back to the living room.

Fili bumped his shoulder and gave him a small, reassuring smile.

"Why has Boromir been staying with you?" Theoden asked.

"Dad threw me out after catching me and Theo together," a voice that must've been Boromir answered after a heavy sigh. "I tried taking Faramir with me, but he threatened to have me arrested for kidnapping. I didn't know what to do…"

Someone murmured something Kili couldn't hear, followed by a bunch of other murmurings that were lost to him as well.

"I believe the best option we have," Thranduil said, cutting through the din, "is to force Denethor to sign over guardianship of both Faramir and Boromir. Get him to sign the forms and get them approved by a court later."

"And how exactly are we supposed to get him to go along with _that_? Ask nicely?" Gloin remarked sarcastically. Kili pursed his lips. He didn't like that they were sniping at each other instead of focusing on what was important.

Thankfully, Thranduil didn't take the bait. "From what I've seen of the man the few times we've met, he seems to value his reputation more than anything else. I think the mere threat of police intervention, with an actual detective there to back up the threat, will have him caving to what we want."

"He's right about Dad valuing his reputation," Boromir agreed in a bitter tone. "He didn't care that I was gay, he only cared what people would say about it."

"Okay, but who's going to be the boys' guardian?" Bilbo asked. "I mean, I'm sure I speak for Thorin when I say they are more than welcome here, but what would be best for them?"

"I think they should stay with me," Theoden declared. "I've known them since they were young and they obviously have good relationships with my children."

"You've known them for years and clearly missed their father abusing them," Thranduil pointed out.

"It wasn't his fault," Boromir protested vehemently. "Most of the time, I could stop my father from hitting Faramir so there wasn't much to notice. I just screwed up and now I can't protect him!"

"Regardless, I don't think Theoden is the best option," Thorin stated. "If Denethor is upset with Boromir being with Theodred, he might refuse to sign out of spite."

"My wife and I would welcome them," a new voice said. Kili scrunched up his face in confusion before realizing it must be Aragorn's stepdad, who had yet to say anything. "My wife and the boys' mother were first cousins. Gilraen hasn't really been part of their lives before, but she would like to be. And if we do have to go through the police and the foster system, the boys could still be placed with us."

"I like that plan," Bilbo said approvingly. "Gives them some stability regardless of what option we have to take."

"Agreed," Thranduil said. "When should we confront him?"

"No time like the presence," Gloin remarked. "I don't want the boy with that man any longer than he has to be."

"Let me call my partner. I want him to come with us as well," Thorin said. "Theoden, it might be best if you don't come. Maybe you should take these boys to your home and we'll bring Faramir there. Might be best to bring him somewhere familiar before settling him with Elrond and Gilraen."

"I want to come!" Boromir protested immediately. "He's my brother!"

"It's better if you don't," he reasoned. "Trust me. I'll get your brother out of there, though. I promise."

Fili and Kili scrambled back to Fili's room as everyone started bustling about making plans. Kili turned towards his brother with frightened eyes as soon as they were inside.

"You don't think he'll hurt Pop or the others, do you?"

Fili gave him a soft smile before pulling him into a hug. "Of course not," he assured. "You've seen him. Do you really think he could take both Pop _and_ Uncle Dwalin?"

Kili was pretty sure that _no one_ could take both Thorin and Dwalin, let alone the posh business man he knew Faramir's father was. "You're right."

"I'm always right," he said slyly. "It's been a long day, though. You should get some sleep."

"Can I stay in here with you?" Kili all but begged. He didn't want to sleep alone tonight.

"You can always stay with me," came the almost automatic answer. "Though I think Dad and Pop might wonder why they bothered with separate rooms if we keep ending up in the same bed."

Kili just chuckled before darting through the bathroom to grab a pair of pajamas before getting ready for bed. He sighed as he slid into bed next to Fili and curled around him, sure that he wouldn't be able to sleep much that night.

However, with Fili's arm wrapped around him and with his brother's hand in his hair, he quickly drifted off.

He curled into himself as the shouting got louder. He didn't want to be here, but he hadn't had a chance to run before the first blow hit him. He had cried as they kept coming down before they stopped and the screaming and pleading had started.

He had never been this scared before. He dared to peek between his fingers and gave a soft whine as his father gave his mother one final kick before walking away in disgust. He wanted to creep forward to check on her. He had never seen his father as mad as he had been, and she wasn't moving.

He was so scared, though. He couldn't move. He was shaking. No, someone was shaking him…

"Kili!" Fili called, waking him from the nightmare. "It's okay," he said, pulling Kili's trembling form into his arms. "It's okay."

"Fili…" He couldn't stop crying. It was stupid. It was just a stupid dream. Why couldn't he stop crying?

"Do you want me to get Dad? Or Pop?" Fili asked, pulling away and looking at him with worry.

He shook his head and tucked his head under his brother's chin. "Just you," he whispered.

Fili just held him as he got his crying under control and the tremors slowly left his body. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked finally.

He thought about that for a minute. He hadn't really talked to anyone about that night, not even the police who had come and taken his dad away or the lady who brought him to the group home. He didn't like to think about it. He didn't like to think about his first family at all. He didn't know what he would dream about them. He thought those dreams were long gone.

"It was about my first family," he admitted at last. "About the night my mom died."

Fili hummed in understanding. "It makes sense that this whole thing with Faramir would bring back bad memories."

Kili shook his head. "Faramir is completely different than me," he argued. "What Faramir's dad did to him doesn't make any sense. Faramir is such a good person. He didn't deserve any of that."

Fili hands flew up to frame Kili's face as he stared at him seriously. "You honestly can't think that _you_ deserved what your first father did to you."

"Maybe I didn't deserve _everything_ he did," Kili conceded. "But I did make him mad all the time. I mean, I was loud and asked too many questions and was always around when he didn't want me there…"

"Kili, what happened to you wasn't your fault!" Fili said vehemently. "That man never should have _touched_ you!"

"But some of it _was_ my fault!" Kili sobbed. "If I hadn't been there, he wouldn't have hurt my mom. She wouldn't have stepped between us and he wouldn't have k-k-killed her…"

"Kili, no," Fili murmured, pulling him close and letting him sob into his shoulder. "He was a bad person. You didn't make him that way, and you couldn't have stopped him. Your mother tried to protect you because she loved you. She wouldn't want you to blame yourself."

"If I had just been _better_. I tried. I tried _so hard_ to be good, but it wasn't enough," he muttered.

"No," Fili said firmly, tightening his hold on him. "You were good enough. But even if you weren't, that doesn't matter. You could've been a complete terror and he wouldn't have had the right to hurt you."

"Then why did he?" Kili asked brokenly. "Why didn't he love me?"

"Because he's an asshole and an idiot," he whispered into Kili's hair. "Because only an idiot wouldn't love you."

Kili let his brother hold him tight as his crying subsided. Maybe Fili was right. Maybe his first dad was just a bad person. Maybe Kili _hadn't_ deserved to be hit. He hadn't been much older than Frodo at the time. And no matter how bad Frodo was, Kili wouldn't say that he deserved to be hurt for it. And he _knew_ Bilbo and Thorin would never hit Frodo like his first dad had hit him.

"You're not… worried about doing something to deserve something like that now, right?" Fili asked quietly, breaking the silence that had settled over them.

"No," Kili replied in a sure voice, realizing with a start that it was true. "Even if I thought someone might try, I know you'd never let them. Neither would Dad or Pop."

"Good. I love you, Kee."

"I love you, too, Fee."

Tbc…


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Faramir wasn't at school the next day, but Eomer and Eowyn reported that he had gotten to their house late last night. When they had left, he was still curled up sleeping in Boromir's arms, who he hadn't let go of since he got there.

Kili was distracted the entire day, worrying that Faramir might be angry with them when he did get back. He wasn't going to regret what they did regardless, but he hoped he hadn't lost Faramir as a friend.

He'd understand if he was mad, though. Kili knew that _he_ didn't like people knowing about what his first dad did to him. Even if Fili said it wasn't his fault, he still didn't like the looks he got from people once they knew. But then there were people like Fili and Dad and Pop, who all knew but didn't give him the looks. Those people were worth putting up with all the others.

He wanted to be one of those people for Faramir.

He was anxious the next day to get to school, hoping Faramir would be back.

Fili rolled his eyes at him as he tied his schools. "I swear, you're like an overgrown puppy," he said, standing up and grabbing his backpack.

Kili made a face at him but grabbed his hand as soon as he had his bag and dragged him out of the house and down the street. "Hurry up!" he urged. "I want to talk to Faramir before class."

The blond sighed but picked up his step anyway. Kili threw him a grateful look.

They got to school in record time, which only meant they had to wait around for the rest of their friends to arrive. Kili shifted his weight nervously, not turning his eyes away from the direction he knew Faramir would be coming from.

"He's not going to be mad, you know," Fili said suddenly, putting a calming hand on his shoulder.

"He might be," he argued, not looking at him.

Whatever Fili might have said was lost, though, as Faramir came into sight with Aragorn walking beside him. Kili gave a cry before running forward to meet them. Aragorn shot him a smile before walking ahead of the two younger students. Kili nodded at him gratefully before turning to Faramir with a sheepish look.

"You look a lot better," he said. And he did. Faramir didn't look as tired or tense or anything. He was still a little pale and looked too thin, but he didn't seem as… worn.

Faramir gave him a small smile. "I think things are going to be a lot better now."

Something inside of him relaxed at the words. "You're not… upset, are you? That we told our parents about your dad?" he asked still, needing to clear the air.

Faramir frowned. "I hadn't even thought about being upset," he admitted. "Everything's kinda happened pretty fast. I don't know how I feel about you all going to your parents without telling me, but I'm happy to be be back with Boromir and I think staying with Elrond and Gilraen is going to be okay."

"It's my fault we didn't tell you what we were going to do," Kili confessed. "Don't blame anyone else if you're gonna be mad about it. I convinced them it would be better."

He tilted his head in response. "That would be the only thing I could maybe be upset about, but why didn't you want to tell me what you planned?"

Kili bit his lips and looked down at his shoes. "I thought it'd make you act differently around your dad and he'd get suspicious. My first dad was always suspicious of me when I acted any different."

A look of understanding crossed Faramir's face and he abruptly pulled Kili into a hug. "We're both going to be okay," he said firmly, pulling away and giving Kili a serious look. He smiled at Kili before leading them both towards where the rest of their friends were gathered.

Kili couldn't help but shoot admiring glancing at Faramir throughout the day. The amount of strength in the other boy amazed him. When he had left his first family, he hadn't thought it was going to be okay. It had taken him a long time, and no small amount of help from Fili, to think that.

Faramir, though, seemed to be taking everything in stride. As the days went by, he became more like the Faramir Kili had come to know last year, except more, somehow. Kili didn't really understand _how_ the other boy could bounce back so fast. How could he be so accepting of what happened already? How could he have already moved past it?

It had taken Kili _years_ to put what his first dad did behind him, and he still wasn't really sure he had. How could Faramir do it so fast? Was there something wrong with _Kili_ that made it so hard for him?

When he had voiced his concerns to Fili, his brother had shaken his head.

"I don't know if Faramir is actually past what his dad did to him," he had said thoughtfully. "But your situations are different. He's always had his brother there for him. Things were worse this summer because Boromir was gone, but now they're back together."

Kili had understood better after that. Faramir was acting like things were normal because, for him, things _had_ gone back to normal because he was with his brother again.

Kili could _definitely_ relate to that.

So things settled down after that. The upside of everything was that Fili and Kili's two groups of friends seamlessly merged together as the year progressed. Aragorn and Faramir became better friends simply by living together, and because they both shared lunch with Gimli and Legolas, the four of them grew closer. Tauriel and Eowyn were practically joined at the hip at times, with Eomer usually standing not too far off. Truthfully, it sometimes seemed as if his friends were better friends with Fili's friends than they were with _him_, but seeing as how he and Fili were together whenever they weren't in class, he really couldn't complain too much.

It came as a surprise, then, when Legolas invited him, Faramir, and Gimli over for a sleepover for his birthday.

"My father told me to only invite people in my class," he had explained with a shrug. "Besides, it's been a while since it was just us, right?"

Which is how he had ended up at the Greenleaf residence, sitting amid a pile of sleeping bags, munching pizza with the three of them plus Tauriel, who steadfastly refused to be excluded when Thranduil had tried to tell her that girls shouldn't attend boys' slumber parties.

"It's not a slumber party!" Legolas protested immediately, ears burning red. "Slumber parties are for girls!"

"It's a slumber party," Tauriel said with a roll of her eyes. "And boys can have them same as girls can. And it doesn't matter that they're all guys. They're all gay anyway!"

Kili was so blindsided by that that he didn't know how to react and just stared at Tauriel in confusion. He looked at the other boys to try and figure out what his reaction should be. Legolas face had gone completely pink and he wasn't looking anyone in the eye. Faramir looked nervous but defiant, and Gimli had the same easy-going look on his face as normally did.

They didn't seem to be denying it. How could all of his friends be gay without him knowing it? And why did they think he was? He hadn't really shown interest to anybody. Was it just because his dads were gay? Kili didn't think it worked like that…

Thranduil, though, seemed to accept it in stride and left them alone without further argument to Tauriel.

"I didn't know you were all gay," Kili commented as soon as they were alone. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Nobody told anyone. Tauriel just has a big mouth," Legolas said, scowling at her.

"It's not like it matters," Faramir reasoned, looking a bit more confident now that it was out there and no one reacted badly.

"So you all knew that you all were gay?" he asked, still confused. "_How_?"

"I didn't know we _all_ were," Faramir admitted. "Knowing makes me feel a little bit better though."

"I kinda had a feeling," Gimli said with a shrug.

"I'm not gay though," Kili stated uncertainly.

"Really?" Tauriel said, eyebrows raised in surprise.

"I-I don't think so?" he stammered out, a little worried at how surprised she was. Was he gay and didn't know it? Shouldn't he know? "How are you supposed to know?"

"What do you mean? You just _know_ whether you like boys or girls!" she cried in exasperation.

"I don't like anybody like that…"

"Of course, you do," Legolas said, rolling his eyes. "Everyone likes _someone_ like that."

"I don't?" he said, worried now. Was there something wrong with him?

"Really?" Tauriel said skeptically. "There's no one you'd like to, I don't know, hold hands with or kiss or something?"

Kili's mind flashed back to the kiss he shared with Fili almost two years ago but pushed that thought away. Fili was his brother. Tauriel meant something different.

He shook his head. "Who do _you_ like then?" he challenged, trying to divert attention away from himself.

"Eowyn," she answered promptly. "And Faramir likes Eomer, and Gimli and Legolas like each other."

"Tauriel!" Legolas cried in outrage, face tinged pink as he tried to not look at Gimli. Kili didn't think he had anything to worry about, though, because Gimli was smiling at him and he was pretty sure that that would work out in Legolas's favor. Faramir's ears were flaming red, but he gave no other reaction to his crush being revealed so callously.

"But we were talking about _you_," she told Kili, ignoring Legolas's anger. "Surely there must be _someone_. Have you ever kissed anyone?"

"Yes!" he said defensively before flushing in mortification. He didn't want to tell them about that. "I mean, no!"

"You have!" she cackled in excitement. Faramir and Gimli were looking at him in askance as well. Even Legolas was distracted enough from his own annoyance to give him a curious look. "Who?"

"It's not important," he mumbled.

"You have to tell us!" Gimli said eagerly. "When did it happen? Why didn't you tell any of us?"

"Almost two years ago, before I knew any of you," he muttered, face burning. "Can we please not talk about it?"

"Was it not good?" Faramir asked in concern.

"No, it was great!" Kili protested immediately. "I just, don't want to talk about it."

"We're not going to let it go until you tell us who it was with," Tauriel stated with a smirk. "Do we know them? We must or you wouldn't be trying to keep it a secret."

"Was it your friend Ori?" Legolas guessed.

"No."

"Well then who was it?" Tauriel demanded.

"Fili, okay!" he finally cried in defeat, glaring at them. "Can we drop it now?"

"You kissed your brother?" Faramir asked in confusion.

"That doesn't count," Tauriel said, exasperated. "Brotherly kisses aren't what we were talking about."

"It wasn't really a… brotherly kiss," Kili admitted.

"But… you're brothers?" Gimli stated, an odd look on his face.

"We weren't technically brothers then," he defended. "This was before my dad and his uncle got together and we moved in together."

"Wait, so you and Fili aren't _real_ brothers?" Legolas questioned, looking confused. "Like, there's no blood relation?"

"I'm only seven months younger than he is. How did you guys not realize that?" he asked incredulously. "But he's still my brother."

"Yeah, we know, whatever, but you don't share the same birth parents?" he clarified.

"We just assumed you did," Faramir said. "I mean, your names are so similar and you're so close…"

"Our names are a coincidence," Kili replied with a shrug. "And we only had each other when we were in foster care together so of course we're close."

Tauriel smirked. "So do you _like_ Fili?"

His eyes widened. "We're brothers!"

"Only because you call yourselves brothers," she pointed out. "If you wanted to call yourselves boyfriends, you could do that too."

He rolled his eyes. "We've always been brothers. I'm not going to give that up because you think I'm supposed to _like_ someone."

She shrugged. "Maybe you don't like him, but you're gonna like _someone_ one of these days."

"And when I do, I'll make sure to tell you nothing," he warned, causing the other boys to laugh.

They abandoned their pizza then and Legolas brought out a deck of Uno cards. In retaliation for the earlier conversation, the boys all teamed up to make Tauriel lose, but she held her own even with them all against her, helped out by a series of what Kili thought were unfairly lucky hands.

And if Gimli and Legolas sat a little closer than usual, well, Kili did say a word.

Tbc…

A/N: So two things. So a few things. First, I'd like to assure all of you that the end-game is still Aragorn/Legolas and Gimli/Ori, but I wanted to throw in a very slight middle-school romance between Gimli and Legolas before things got too dramatic in high school.

Second, Spring Break is coming to an unfortunate end, so these daily updates of my stories will not be happening anymore. I should still update every two or three days, though, so keep an eye out!


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